>>If it's not advertising, then it's those pesky fund raising specials that PBS has every so often instead. I donate to PBS because I really do enjoy the shows they choose (even if they are old) and I enjoy watching them without commercials. However, it seems like the fund raising is on about every 2 months these days and that interrupts the schedule I do enjoy.
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>I've taken my measurement on NPR - and their ad time is less during the regular day, but if you count these four weeks as ad space (they're doing the stuff that brings them money, and any content you hear in those four weeks is used for it), the percentage of time divided between content time, ad time and self-advertising is pretty much the same.
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>I have a form which does the counting for me - it has a timer, and three containers. Each container has a command button, and a textbox to display the hours:minutes:seconds, plus a percentage (and I think I have a graph in the latest version). Each container has a numeric property, which is the count of time while the container was the active one - i.e. clicking one resumes time counting for that container and stops the others. There are hotkey captions on the buttons (1, 2, 3 - simple :). So when I click 1, it counts time in first counter, 2 stops the 1st counter and starts the 2nd and so on. I just press 1 for content, 2 for ad time ("support for programming comes from...", "made possible by..." - why the know they keep trying those impossible things that require sponsors, I wonder), 3 for self-advertising ("you're listening to...", "next on ...", "for more details, go to dubya-dubya-dubya-dot...").
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>And no, I'm not giving a dime to either PBS or NPR. When I compared my stats and calculated those four weeks in, it comes pretty close to equal, at least in the parts that I watch (one hour episode is actually 42 minutes long, so it's 18 minutes of ads, which is exactly 30:70, or rather 25 minutes of ads on every hour of content). I'd give some if I was sure that they'd stop it when they get the money, but I hear them say that people are giving - and they don't stop. Actually, never saw a beggar who didn't come again.

Define "when they got the money". Do you figure that as soon as 1 or 2 people donate, then they should stop because "people are giving"? In the case of JAZZ FM radio here in Toronto, they set a goal, and the fund raising runs for 2 weeks, or until they reach their goal - whichever comes first.