Minor correction. Government funding is a pretty small part of NPR revenues. (Corporation for Public Broadcasting is about 2% although there are additional government funding sources.)
I agree with your broader point though. Podcasting that isn't just a hobby or a side endeavor that supports the businesses that actually bring in the money is a tough business model. Not saying that there aren't popular/quality (not necessarily the same thing) ones that can pull it off well enough to eek out a continued existence, but it's tough and isn't going to get any easier.
Sorry, you're quite right on that point. I was thinking more that they're not run with a profit motive, which I think is still fair to say. Other government-chartered radio stations, like Sputnik or BBC, are, I think, more fully government-funded.
The BBC is halfway between government funded and private, because the money is from a licence to (originally) receive TV signals, and fairly directly from that.
This is different from (UK) motor vehicle duty, where the income and the expenses have nothing much to do with each other, and more like the requirement for all (UK) motorists to have insurance.
On the other hand, the UK government gets upset every so often about BBC coverage of its policies and reacts by threatening it with a lower licence fee, so it’s not not government funded either.
I agree with your broader point though. Podcasting that isn't just a hobby or a side endeavor that supports the businesses that actually bring in the money is a tough business model. Not saying that there aren't popular/quality (not necessarily the same thing) ones that can pull it off well enough to eek out a continued existence, but it's tough and isn't going to get any easier.