Scarboroughbluffsradiof99 wrote:

Its May.
Any updates on 94.5 WNED?
There new branding, format, programming, and when they will swich from classical?
BTPM has'nt gave any hints just may 2026 and music with talkshows.
Will it be local talk or will the talkshows on 1270 swich to 94.5?

I think you can be absolutely sure of one thing - the talk shows on The Patriot 1270 will never, ever appear on any of the Buffalo-Toronto Public Media stations. (And the fact is, even WUSW's owner Buddy Shula has admitted he made a mistake with the format and will be changing it to something else soon. He just won't say what yet.)

My guess is that they will keep them on 88.7 hd2 or 3 and there fm translaters and have local programming on 94.5.

According to The Buffalo News' Alan Pergament, the changes at WBFO-FM, which were supposed to happen in May, have now been delayed until at least July. Not sure of the reason. 

fybush wrote:

Pergament is usually pretty good with his sourcing, but not on this one.

As someone involved in this project (which is why there's very little I can say about it until it's all public), there hasn't been a May deadline or target date for any programming changes.

He might be confusing that with the timing of the underlying 94.5 license status change; in any event, the only deadline I've known about for the programming changes all along has been in July.

I will take your word for it, but here's the first line from Pergament's article, published about an hour ago from this post:

"The radio changes being made by Buffalo Toronto Public Media (BTPM) have been delayed from May to July, according to a spokesperson for BTPM."

For now, that's all I can see. If there's more of an explanation than that, I don't have access to it, but he is quoting a spokesperson for BTPM, for whatever that's worth. 

I was also confused about the deadline.
And by the way, what's happening to WUSW?
any updates?

The radio owners love surprises, we will have to whate and find out.

We may get more answers on the changes at WNED and its radio stations on Wednesday night. 

That's when Channel 17 is showing a live presentation called "State of the Stations," a look at what's coming up for Buffalo Toronto Public Media. 

From their website:

"Join Buffalo Toronto Public Media for our second live "State of the Stations" discussion. Wednesday, May 27 at 7:30 pm on BTPM PBS, BTPM NPR, BTPM Classical, and the BTPM YouTube channel. Hear from the organization's key decision makers concerning the present and future status of your public media stations. This critical conversation covers the most important issues facing Buffalo Toronto Public Media."

The Buffalo News has an excellent recap of what was announced on Buffalo Toronto Public Media's WNED "State Of The Stations."

Among the revelations - Channel 17 owes a lot to Canada, where contributions from north of the border following federal U.S. funding cuts are way up. 

BTPM is financially stable and more takeaways from 'State of the Stations'

From the article:

Thank You, Canada: There has been no wavering of financial support from Canada despite President Trump’s campaign to make the country the 51st American state. 

The article also states that despite the funding cut, the station is holding its own.

"The leadership praised the Western New York and Canadian communities for raising their financial support after the Trump administration eliminated federal funding."

Both have raised their financial support. I take that to mean Canadians are giving more. 

I wonder if other PBS border, or near the border stations in Burlington, Rochester, Erie, Detroit, Spokane and Seattle that have signal penetration north of the border have as many donations from Canadian viewers as WNED has.

mace wrote:

I wonder if other PBS border, or near the border stations in Burlington, Rochester, Erie, Detroit, Spokane and Seattle that have signal penetration north of the border have as many donations from Canadian viewers as WNED has.

WXXI in Rochester hasn't had significant Canadian viewership in a long time. Most of the cable systems across the lake that used to carry it (especially Belleville) replaced it with either WNED or WTVS a couple of decades ago.

WQLN in Erie and WPBS in Watertown paid for their own private fiber links in order to remain on cable in London and Ottawa, respectively, since those viewer bases are somewhat larger than their own US-based small communities. WCFE in Plattsburgh (Mountain Lake PBS) and Vermont Public both draw heavily on Montreal and are seen in the rest of Quebec as well, and Prairie Public in North Dakota likewise draws very heavily on Manitoba audiences.

Beyond that, it's all just satellite and fiber delivering whatever US PBS outlets are both cleared for Canadian distribution and most readily available to each cable system. In the west, that's KCTS Seattle (into Vancouver/BC) and KSPS Spokane (Alberta, Saskatchewan). In the east, that's WTVS Detroit (parts of Manitoba, most of Ontario, etc), WNED (the GTA) and WGBH Boston (the Maritimes). 

If I had to guess which stations among those draw the largest percentage of membership dollars from Canada, I would think it's Prairie Public, WPBS, WQLN and WCFE/Mountain Lakes among smaller stations and WNED, KSPS and WTVS among the larger ones. 

I don't think WGBH even actively solicits Canadian memberships, and I'm not sure KCTS does either.