I stopped listening to Buffalo AM stations many years ago.  In the early 50s at the tale end of radio’s golden age,
WBEN was an NBC affiliate. Around 1953 or 1954 it switched to CBS affiliation.and carried the remaining CBS
comedies and dramas that were slowly disappearing from radio. Even after these programs were gone, I relied on WBEN for news coverage from CBS which was tops for American radio,  for a few years, CBS actually had 10 minute radio newscasts at the top of every hour.  Through the years, the station concentrated mostly on local news and dropped CBS affiliation and became another mouthpiece for Rush and right wing blabbers. What a decline for the station and many others like it.

Chuck99 wrote:

It is also equally dumb that we are unable to streams shows from the PBS website in the U.S. even though virtually none of the content has been sold to a Canadian broadcaster.  Fortunately, my Hola Better Internet patch allowed me to watch previously aired episodes of the Ken Burns Vietnam War series.  I was also able to watch the two colorized episodes of the old Dick Van Dyke show on the CBS web site a couple of years ago.  Unfortunately, I know of no similar work-around for a radio app.

Well, what's even more insulting is how much money WNED (and perhaps WTVS in Detroit) gets from Canadian contributors. I feel certain that WNED-TV (which proudly bills itself in its on air IDs as "Buffalo-Toronto") would not exist without GTA residents ponying up money during their infamous begathons. To then shut us out from online viewing is, in my view, unconscionable.

And I find Hola works less and less often these days, which is a shame, because it was wonderful when it did.

You can also get WBEN on 98.5FM HD3.

It's not that simple. 

CC could certainly have made the local KFI shows available... but...  big but... (butt?)  A lot of commercials, promos, bumpers involve union talent, and that talent is only paid for a specific geographical area.  So it's not as simple as just geo-blocking 'some' parts of the show, you pretty much need to re-create the broadcast and edit, switch out etc. on the fly.  This also includes drops, news segments, guests etc.  

I've had Canadian show guests ask me if I can ensure their interview isn't broadcast in the states, and I laugh and when I tell them It's easier to find someone else, 10 times out of 10 they agree it's not a huge deal.  But it doesn't mean they don't try.

With all the copyright shite nowadays nothing is simple.

I agree, it's easier to subscribe to a vpn for $4 a month and not worry about it.

RadioActive wrote:

I haven't listened to WBEN in ages, with the exception of Sandy Beach's 50th anniversary show a few months ago. But this kind of thing really drives me crazy. (And as I always say, it's not a very long drive!) 

I sort of get the semi-coherent rationale that over-the-air music stations have to geoblock (sorry Geo!) their signals into Canada over rights agreements. Although I think that's pretty specious logic. 

But locally produced talk shows which don't involve any copyrights? That's just insane. If they wanted to cut off Rush Limbaugh, OK, it's syndicated and he has his own deal. But Sandy Beach's or Tom Bauerle's efforts? The reasons simply confound me.

It was the same thing when Bill Carroll was on KFI in L.A. What, exactly, was the reason to not allow the world to hear his show if someone out of the country was interested? It was a locally originated show. Where are the rights issues? 

Talk about taking the "world" out of the worldwide web...