By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

Frank Fixaris, whose career in radio and television broadcasting in Maine spanned five decades, was remembered by friends and former colleagues Friday as a pioneer with limitless passion for both sports and broadcasting.

Fixaris died Friday in an early-morning fire at his Falmouth home. He was 71.

He served as sports director for WGME-TV in Portland from 1967 to 1992, providing sports reports on the evening newscasts. He also broadcast Maine high school sports and Maine Mariners hockey games on the radio and television. Most recently, he was a co-host on “The Morning Jab,” a popular sports talk radio show broadcast from 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays on WJAB 95.5 FM in Westbrook.

“To say it’s a sad day would be a great understatement,” said WGME sports director Dave Eid. “Frank was sports at WGME. He was a pioneer at our station.”

“It’s really a great loss for everyone that either watched Frank or came into contact with him,” he added.

Former Lewiston Evening Journal editor and WLAM broadcaster Fred Gage of Auburn said he used to come into contact with Fixaris frequently during the high school sports season. Both Fixaris, a Connecticut native whose broadcasting career in Maine began in radio, and Gage would broadcast games around the state, including the Lewiston Armory.

“I did an awful lot of basketball and football games with Frank,” said Gage. “They’d always set us up in the back row at the (Portland) Expo or in the back row somewhere, or I’d go to a game and Frank would be up in there in the broadcast booth somewhere.”

NESN broadcaster and Sun Journal columnist Tom Caron worked with Fixaris at WGME from 1988 to 1993, then hired him as his color analyst for Portland Pirates games from 1993 to 1995.

“Like everyone else in Lewiston, I grew up watching him every night. He was the sports authority,” Caron said. “To go on to work with him was an honor and a privilege and a dream come true.”

Caron said Fixaris was the consummate professional, someone who could “roll out of bed and do highlights and sound like he’d rehearsed it 10 times,” and someone who stressed getting the story and scores right over producing glitzy sportscasts.

“In a business where everybody’s got a bigger ego than the guy before, it was refreshing to deal with a guy that was a local legend and had no ego,” he said.

WCSH TV sports director Bruce Glasier credited Fixaris with helping him get his start in broadcasting and remembered him for his dry wit and humility. Even when the two were on competing newscasts, Fixaris was always willing to help.

“He was my friend. He was my mentor,” Glasier said. “When we were rivals, we weren’t rivals. I could call him and say, Hey Frank, did you get a score on the Portland-Westbrook game,’ or he could call me.”

Eid said he frequently relied on Fixaris’ background in local sports for perspective on current stories.

“He was just a wealth of knowledge in this community when it came to sports,” Eid said. “He always put local sports first. Local sports to him was everything.”

Fixaris continued to promote local sports on “The Morning Jab,” and as a lifelong New York Yankees fan, he served as a foil for co-hosts Dave Schumacher, an ardent Red Sox fan, and recent addition Joe Palmieri.

“The Morning Jab” did not run Friday. WJAB’s Web site paid homage to Fixaris, who had been a co-host since 2001, with a black background, the words “In tribute to our friend and colleague Frank Fixaris 1934-2006” and a picture of Fixaris sitting behind a microphone.

WGME began its noon and evening newscasts with tributes to Fixaris. Longtime anchor Kim Block opened the 5 p.m. newscast by saying, “Maine lost a good friend today.”

“His legacy was a great voice and a great mind for local sports,” Glasier said.