>>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.
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>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.

So do these guys. Just imagine that I'd once be so generous to pay them to stop it four days earlier. Maybe the utter chaos they'd get into would be worth it.

But never mind, I got that for free already. On weekends, there are periods of silence, followed by "sorry about technical difficulties", or shows run at wrong times, or the pre-recorded announcements for the next two hours of music being played in a batch, followed by a batch of music (nobody bothered to actually distribute them? - happened in the local branch here), or two soundtracks (say, news and a comment) being played at the same time... if they're running weekends on autopilot, I'm still not giving a dime.