The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / What Do The Tariff Fights Portend For WNED?

**Posted by RadioActive** **Online!** March 6, 2025 2:23 pm

Shoppers here are looking at the products they buy to try to select those made in Canada - or at least, not in the U.S.

Canuck vacationers are flying away from going to the American south and west.

And many people are rethinking anything that comes from America.

I can't help but wonder if this will in any way affect the contributions going to WNED-TV. Channel 17 is the only American station I know of that openly depends on Canadian contributions during its endless pledge breaks. It even changed its corporate name to Buffalo-Toronto Public Media.

I recall hearing that more people in Southern Ontario donate to the station than do those in Buffalo and Western New York. And it accepts Canadian dollars at par.

So now that people on this side of the border are being encouraged to boycott anything American, could WNED be in trouble if their next pledge drives dry up? They must be feeling a bit nervous right now. (Not sure if this also applies to Vermont and Detroit PBS outlets, which I think are a bit more self-sufficient. But Buffalo is definitely vulnerable, depending on how this all shakes out.)

And it doesn't help that the new gang in Washington are openly hostile to PBS itself.

**Posted by tdotwriter** March 6, 2025 2:59 pm

As someone who personally enjoys numerous programs produced by PBS network stations as well as national network ones such as Nova, I seriously hope this trade relations disaster doesn't inflict them any significant consequences.

Besides my personal concerns with fad-exploiting people just taking advantage of Canadian patriotism and "buying Canadian" as "the current thing", there's also the issue of possible collateral damage inflicted against entities that are not at all involved in the politics behind the initial tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, and they could be commercial, non-commercial in the case of local PBS and NPR network stations and possibly even charitable.

These are very unfortunate things to think about. Staying more strictly within the topic of broadcasting, particularly at the local level, WNED provides those who are able to pick up its over-the-air signal with a total of three channels multiplexed on to its single transmitter. There's the main PBS network station WNED itself on 17.1, Create; a 24/7 arts & crafts channel on 17.2, and PBS Kids; a 24/7 young children's channel on 17.3. Many other PBS stations have a similar arrangement. There's also a full simulcast of WNED 94.5 FM as an audio-only channel that for some reason is mapped as 31.10. WNED provides all of that with a much smaller proportion of public (taxpayer) funding than CBC, CBC Radio-Canada (French), TVO, or any of the other provincial public service networks.

Each of our public broadcasters provide only a single program service or "channel" and over-the-air coverage is much more limited than those of many PBS network stations boasting decent networks of re-transmitters. Thus, PBS is entirely morally worthy of continued viewer donations and I would support the sponsors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and local PBS stations. I hope others agree.

Last edited by tdotwriter (March 6, 2025 4:41 pm)

**Posted by RadioActive** **Online!** March 6, 2025 3:13 pm

Well stated. I, too, appreciate WNED and they are likely as far from a Trumpian state of mind as any organization in the U.S. My worry is that some will see 'it's from the States, and right now anything south of the border is tainted,' leading to the dollars drying up. They literally on depend on Canadians more than any PBS station in North America.

I hope they're planning on letting people know they're not worthy of a boycott. Or even that they might not be able to survive one at all if it were to come to that.

**Posted by Chrisphen** March 6, 2025 4:16 pm

I can't see much in the way of a boycott concern if they adhere to their current standards. With the other major networks tripping over themselves to grovel at Trump's feet for fear of legal and physical retaliation, PBS/NPR will be the only independent voice available. On the other hand, if they do stick to their guns they could well be outlawed the way things are headed.

**Posted by Ale Ont** March 6, 2025 4:46 pm

The main PBS station in Ottawa is WNPI, a rebroadcaster of WPBS from Watertown, New York. The numbers I have always heard is that 60 percent of its' money comes from Canadians, with 40 percent from Ottawa.

**Posted by Dial Twister** March 6, 2025 5:46 pm

Chrisphen wrote:
I can't see much in the way of a boycott concern if they adhere to their current standards. With the other major networks tripping over themselves to grovel at Trump's feet for fear of legal and physical retaliation, PBS/NPR will be the only independent voice available. On the other hand, if they do stick to their guns they could well be outlawed the way things are headed.

And it's already underway...
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/30/nx-s1-5281162/fcc-npr-pbs-investigation

**Posted by Hamiltonboy** March 6, 2025 11:38 pm

tdotwriter wrote:
As someone who personally enjoys numerous programs produced by PBS network stations as well as national network ones such as Nova, I seriously hope this trade relations disaster doesn't inflict them any significant consequences.

Besides my personal concerns with fad-exploiting people just taking advantage of Canadian patriotism and "buying Canadian" as "the current thing", there's also the issue of possible collateral damage inflicted against entities that are not at all involved in the politics behind the initial tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, and they could be commercial, non-commercial in the case of local PBS and NPR network stations and possibly even charitable.

These are very unfortunate things to think about. Staying more strictly within the topic of broadcasting, particularly at the local level, WNED provides those who are able to pick up its over-the-air signal with a total of three channels multiplexed on to its single transmitter. There's the main PBS network station WNED itself on 17.1, Create; a 24/7 arts & crafts channel on 17.2, and PBS Kids; a 24/7 young children's channel on 17.3. Many other PBS stations have a similar arrangement. There's also a full simulcast of WNED 94.5 FM as an audio-only channel that for some reason is mapped as 31.10. WNED provides all of that with a much smaller proportion of public (taxpayer) funding than CBC, CBC Radio-Canada (French), TVO, or any of the other provincial public service networks.

Each of our public broadcasters provide only a single program service or "channel" and over-the-air coverage is much more limited than those of many PBS network stations boasting decent networks of re-transmitters. Thus, PBS is entirely morally worthy of continued viewer donations and I would support the sponsors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and local PBS stations. I hope others agree.

Can’t figure out why WNED doesn’t carry World sub-channel. PBS outlets in Erie and Rochester do, why not Buffalo?

**Posted by mace** March 8, 2025 10:16 am

Ale Ont wrote:
The main PBS station in Ottawa is WNPI, a rebroadcaster of WPBS from Watertown, New York. The numbers I have always heard is that 60 percent of its' money comes from Canadians, with 40 percent from Ottawa.

KSPS Spokane gets many of its donations from Alberta residents as its signal is carried by cable companies in Calgary and Edmonton.

**Posted by Dial Twister** March 8, 2025 10:47 am

mace wrote:
Ale Ont wrote:
The main PBS station in Ottawa is WNPI, a rebroadcaster of WPBS from Watertown, New York. The numbers I have always heard is that 60 percent of its' money comes from Canadians, with 40 percent from Ottawa.
KSPS Spokane gets many of its donations from Alberta residents as its signal is carried by cable companies in Calgary and Edmonton.

Ditto for WNED Buffalo, WTVS Detroit and WGBH Boston.

Last edited by Dial Twister (March 8, 2025 10:50 am)

**Posted by paterson1** March 8, 2025 12:00 pm

I am not so sure for WTVS Detroit. I have never seen or heard them acknowledge Canadian viewers before or even Windsor/ Essex county. But they are on Bell Fibe in a lot of locations like K/W so I would assume they get support from around here.

**Posted by Dial Twister** March 8, 2025 12:11 pm

https://www.detroitpbs.org/about/canada/

**Posted by paterson1** March 8, 2025 2:08 pm

That's interesting, I had no idea WTVS was on cable basically across the country. Wonder why they never acknowledge their Canadian viewers on air? Maybe they do and I just haven't seen them. I remember Buffalo's WNED was always talking about their Canadian viewers. To play devil's advocate, 1.2 million weekly viewers isn't really that high, considering how extensive their coverage is with cable.

**Posted by mace** March 10, 2025 10:43 am

paterson1 wrote:
That's interesting, I had no idea WTVS was on cable basically across the country. Wonder why they never acknowledge their Canadian viewers on air? Maybe they do and I just haven't seen them. I remember Buffalo's WNED was always talking about their Canadian viewers. To play devil's advocate, 1.2 million weekly viewers isn't really that high, considering how extensive their coverage is with cable.

Here in Toronto, I get WNED as part of my regular Rogers Ignite package. For an extra $3 I subscribe to the American time shifting bundle which includes KING/KIRO/KOMO/KCPQ/KCTS/WTVS.

**Posted by MJ Vancouver** March 10, 2025 7:54 pm

WQLN Erie is another one that depends heavily on Canadian donors, primarily in London. Enough so that the survival of the station was on the line when Rogers announced the replacement of WQLN with another PBS station on cable in London in 2009. Rogers reversed course when WQLN put in a fibre link to Canada.

KCTS Seattle (also known as Cascade PBS) also depends to some extent on viewers in British Columbia.

Last edited by MJ Vancouver (March 10, 2025 7:55 pm)