Buffalo Toronto Public Media Blog
Explore the latest stories, innovations, and community voices shaping public media. From behind-the-scenes looks at groundbreaking productions to in-depth features on local culture and initiatives, the BTPM Blog keeps you connected to the heart of public storytelling. Dive into inspiring narratives that amplify the power of media to inform and engage.
BTPM Blog
Kathryn's Must-Sees on BTPM PBS in June
Kathryn’s Must-Sees is your guide for the most compelling and thought-provoking programs on BTPM PBS. Curated monthly by Kathryn Larsen, our Vice President of Content Distribution with over 40 years of programming experience, these standout programs entertain, inspire, and spark conversation.
Kathryn's Must-Sees on BTPM PBS in May
Kathryn’s Must-Sees is your guide for the most compelling and thought-provoking programs on BTPM PBS. Curated monthly by Kathryn Larsen, our Vice President of Content Distribution with over 40 years of programming experience, these standout programs entertain, inspire, and spark conversation.
Kathryn's Must-Sees on BTPM PBS in April
Kathryn’s Must-Sees is your guide for the most compelling and thought-provoking programs on BTPM PBS. Curated monthly by Kathryn Larsen, our Vice President of Content Distribution with over 40 years of programming experience, these standout programs entertain, inspire, and spark conversation.
Kathryn's Must-Sees on BTPM PBS in March
Kathryn’s Must-Sees is your guide for the most compelling and thought-provoking programs on BTPM PBS. Curated monthly by Kathryn Larsen, our Vice President of Content Distribution with over 40 years of programming experience, these standout programs entertain, inspire, and spark conversation.
NYC Theater Trip 2026: Five Shows, Endless Applause
Explore the BTPM Travel Club’s NYC Theater Adventure, featuring five unforgettable shows, behind-the-scenes access, iconic New York landmarks, and meals worth their own standing ovation in this BTPM Blog with Heather Hare.
Kathryn's Must-Sees on BTPM PBS in February
Kathryn’s Must-Sees is your guide for the most compelling and thought-provoking programs on BTPM PBS. Curated monthly by Kathryn Larsen, our Vice President of Content Distribution with over 40 years of programming experience, these standout programs entertain, inspire, and spark conversation.
Kathryn's Must-Sees on BTPM PBS in December
Kathryn’s Must-Sees is your guide for the most compelling and thought-provoking programs on BTPM PBS. Curated monthly by Kathryn Larsen, our Vice President of Content Distribution with over 40 years of programming experience, these standout programs entertain, inspire, and spark conversation.
Kathryn's Must-Sees on BTPM PBS in November
Kathryn’s Must-Sees is your guide for the most compelling and thought-provoking programs on BTPM PBS. Curated monthly by Kathryn Larsen, our Vice President of Content Distribution with over 40 years of programming experience, these standout programs entertain, inspire, and spark conversation.
The Faces Behind the Fair: How BCAT’s Community Resource Event Brings Buffalo Together
What made the BCAT Community Resource Fair stand out wasn’t just its size, more than 30 community organizations participated, but its purpose. It was about connection, access, and collaboration.
Reading Rainbow Returns and So Does the Magic of Reading
The beloved Reading Rainbow returns, inspiring a new generation to discover the joy of books, imagination, and lifelong learning through the power of story.
Kathryn's Must-Sees for October on BTPM PBS
Kathryn’s Must-Sees is your guide for the most compelling and thought-provoking programs on BTPM PBS. Curated monthly by Kathryn Larsen, our Vice President of Content Distribution with over 40 years of programming experience, these standout programs entertain, inspire, and spark conversation.
Top 5 Things To Do in Buffalo this Fall
The fall season is right on our heels in Buffalo, but it's the perfect season to enjoy what the city has to offer. For some suggestions on what to do this fall, here's our list of top 5 things you can do to embrace the new season.
The BTPM Classical Blog is presented by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
BTPM Classical Blog
More Than a Playlist
Whether you're listening over the air or streaming online, BTPM Classical provides a living, breathing sense of flow, discovery, context, and community that goes beyond anything a personal playlist can offer.
Opera to Opry: It’s All Good!
There’s one thing I learned quickly when I started teaching music appreciation at the college level: if I want students to open their minds to “my music,” classical music, then I need to open my mind to “their music” first. BTPM Classical host Marty Wimmer reflects in this Classical Blog.
Reflections on Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was... Well, there’s really no modern equivalent. In this blog, BTPM Classical host Ed. Simone reflects on Toscanini during a trip to Parma.
March Birthday Madness!
BTPM Classical loves March too, not only for basketball, but for birthdays!
Music to Recharge Your Batteries
Music doesn’t always have to bring you to tears, or motivate you to shoot off fireworks in victory over something. It can also just be respite.
The School Piano: A Salute
Do you remember your elementary school music teacher’s name? What was it? I’ll never forget mine. BTPM Classical Host Marty Wimmer reflects on his school piano memories.
Five Classical Music New Year’s Resolutions
Have you ever made a classical music New Year’s resolution? I know. Odd. But I’ve found that classical music New Year’s resolutions are easy to keep – and a heck of a lot easier than dieting or going to the gym!
Christmas Wreaths | BTPM Classical Blog
Ed. Simone reflects on his traditional Christmas wreath in this BTPM Classical blog.
13 Musical Forms of Life | BTPM Classical Blog
Music has a lot in common with architecture. It relies on solid structures called “musical form.” Marty Wimmer tells you more in this BTPM Classical blog.
Abominable Snowmen | BTPM Classical Blog
No Christmas season was complete for me in the 1970s without watching "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. But where did the song come from? Find out in this BTPM Classical Blog.
Change | Marty Wimmer BTPM Classical
November is, indeed, a month of change. But then again, so is every other month. Grandpa was right; the only constant in life is change.
Music, Emotions, & Memories
BTPM Classical Host Marty Wimmer reflects on his three favorite symphonies that connect to him emotionally in this Classical blog.
BTPM The Bridge Blog
The Scene Playlist for June 21
Check out the playlist from The Scene with Chelsea O, and learn more about the artists and their music, including Tiny the Dream, Jennifer Foster, and Deer Fang.
The Bridge Celebrates Pride at All Things Go in Toronto
It happened right on cue. As The Beaches launched into "Lesbian of the Year" on the opening afternoon of All Things Go Toronto, a rainbow stretched across the sky above the RBC Amphitheatre. It was the first weekend of Pride, and for a few minutes, the timing felt less like a coincidence and more like the festival announcing exactly what it was about.
Upcoming Local Shows for 6/19 - 6/25
Check out upcoming local shows happening in Western New York and Southern Ontario, including Lacey Hill, Hundred Plus Club, and Wind and Wire.
The Scene Playlist for June 14
Check out the playlist from The Scene with Chelsea O, and learn about the artists and their music, including Ninety Foot Stone, Velvet Bethany, and Line Break.
Upcoming Local Shows for 6/12 - 6/18
Check out upcoming local shows happening in Western New York and Southern Ontario, including Del Paxton, Paper Tigers, and Yehra.
The Scene Playlist for June 7
Check out the playlist from The Scene with Chelsea O, and learn about the artists and their music, including Blue June, Paper Tigers, and King Ludd.
Upcoming Local Shows for 6/5 - 6/11
Check out local shows happening in Western New York and Southern Ontario, including Randle & The Late Nite Scandals, Merv xx Gotti, and Deer Fang.
The Scene Playlist for May 31
Check out the playlist from The Scene with Chelsea O, and learn about the artists and their music, including Sam Casey, A.I. The Anomaly, and Kasador.
Upcoming Local Shows for 5/29 - 6/4
Check out the upcoming local shows happening in Western New York and Southern Ontario, including Tsavo Highway, Tommyx7 at Operation Infinity's Open Mic, and Handsome Jack.
The Scene Playlist for May 24
Check out the playlist from The Scene with Chelsea, and learn about the artists and their music, including Broken Social Sense, Curtis Lovell, and Growl Bear.
Heritage Moments
Heritage Moments: Land of newcomers, always arriving
The influx of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern refugees into Western New York and Southern Ontario is nothing new. Immigrants, refugees, and seekers of asylum have been coming to the Niagara Frontier literally for centuries.
Heritage Moments: At Fort Erie, a Thoroughbred Goes for an Unexpected Dip
The thoroughbreds have been running at Fort Erie Race Track since 1897, but ask any railbird there which horse took the old border oval’s wildest ride, and they’ll all tell you the same thing: Puss N Boots.
Heritage Moments: For Buffalo Bob Smith, It Was Always ‘Howdy Doody Time’
A whole generation of Americans still knows it by heart: A man shouts, “Hey, kids, what time is it?” And several dozen children shout back in chaotic unison, “It’s Howdy Doody time!”
Heritage Moments: Louise Blanchard Bethune, Buffalo’s Gift to Architecture and Women’s Rights
Buffalonians don't say much about the most significant architect Buffalo ever produced: Louise Blanchard Bethune, America’s first female professional architect, and a woman who designed many of the city’s signature edifices.
Heritage Moments: Northeastern Ohio, Western New York, Paradise—The World of Charles Burchfield
Charles Burchfield, 28, was already an accomplished watercolorist when he moved to Buffalo from Salem, Ohio, in November 1921 to take a job as a designer at the M.H. Birge & Sons wallpaper company. But in 1925, he really found his home.
Heritage Moments: Father Baker’s Miracle at Our Lady of Victory
Father Nelson Baker — the “padre of the poor,” the man who built the Our Lady of Victory complex in Lackawanna into an astonishing city of charity that featured an orphanage, a boys’ protectory, a home for unwed mothers and their infants, a hospital, a grade school and high school, a nurses’ home, a farm to help feed the hungry, a soup kitchen that served more 450,000 meals during the first three years of the Great Depression, and finally the great basilica that has become a national shrine and pilgrimage site.
Heritage Moments: Frank Grant, the Buffalo Bisons and the drawing of baseball’s color line
The chronicle of baseball’s color line usually focuses on the triumphant story of its breaking by Jackie Robinson in the 1940s. Rarely told is the bitter story of how the color line was established, way back in the 1880s — in places like Buffalo, at the expense of black men like Frank Grant, the star second baseman of the Buffalo Bisons.
Heritage Moments: How Jay Silverheels, the man who played Tonto, got his name
Tonto is one of the most famous and enduring characters ever to come out of American television. And the actor who made Tonto come alive during the entire TV run of The Lone Ranger (1949-57) was a handsome, dark-haired, sometimes-Buffalonian named Jay Silverheels.
Heritage Moments: At UB, a Flag Is Born for the Six Nations
Everywhere you go in North America these days, it seems, you see the Six Nations flag. You’d think it’s been flying forever. But in fact, it is less than 40 years old.
Heritage Moments: Chauncey Olcott, WNYs 'Wild Irish Rose'
Chauncey Olcott, a son of Buffalo and Lockport, did not set foot in the Emerald Isle until he was 40 years old.
Heritage Moments: Deerfoot, the World Champion From Cattaraugus
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the sport of running was dominated by Indigenous men. Such famous runners as Tom Longboat (Onondaga), Jim Thorpe (Sac and Fox), Louis Tewanima (Hopi), Deerfoot-Bad Meat (Siksika), and Ellison Brown (Naragansett) were all winners of Olympic gold, the Boston Marathon, and other prestigious races of the era. But the first among them was a Seneca from the Cattaraugus Territory… the original Deerfoot.
Heritage Moments: A ‘Fugitive Slave’ Fights for a Family’s Freedom
William Wells Brown took part in a 1835 brawl in which black Buffalonians, he said, “assembled to protect a brother slave and his wife and child from being dragged back into slavery, which is far worse than death itself.”