This is by no means new (the Radio Discussions Board was talking about this at the beginning of the month) but if you watch Channel 17 or listen to WBFO-FM (88.7) you may have noticed something extra - four extra, to be exact. The stations, along with others in the Buffalo public broadcasting chain south of the border, are now I.D.-ing themselves as BTPM.

What does that mean? It stands for Buffalo-Toronto Public Media and it shows how important Toronto remains to the Queen City stations' charitable coffers. A lot of the money viewers contribute to the public broadcasters comes from the Great White North. (Even Canadian money is taken at par if you want to make a donation.) 

Now it's not only turning up in the station IDs, it's being supered over shows on Channel 17 and being used on top of the hour radio IDs. I remember the first time I saw it, and tried to figure out what it stood for. Now I know. But what a mouthful.

I wonder how viewers in Buffalo feel about one of their stations turning a lot of its attention not only to Toronto but to a place in a different country. Or whether the recent backlash against all things American is affecting those would-be donors here.

For Buffalo News columnist Alan Pergament, it will never really be the true I.D.

Public broadcasting in Buffalo is rebranding as BTPM – but it's still WBFO to me