I have a fairly unique position to view this, as one of a small number of people who pushed podcasting forward 10 years ago (the anniversary was in December).  

It's a long story, but NPR's support, starting with Tony Kahn and WGBH, was crucial. I don't think it would have reached liftoff it weren't for their involvement.  

And they were able to participate because they are non-commercial. Commercial radio couldn't have played the same role. 

We need to have more media that isn't corporate. We also need more programmers who aren't but that's another story.  

Anyway, when the next technology like podcasting comes along, we're going to want to have a media organization that can afford to experiment.  

Maybe the tech industry can pool its resources and come up with the money the US government isn't allocating. It would, imho, be a good investment. Really not very much money when you consider how much is being poured into random startups, and what can be built off this kind of experimentation.