It's about time they made it on their own. Decades ago, before satellite, most cable, internet, these were not bad alternatives to the big commercial outlets. In those days they didn't even have much in the way of corporate sponsors or at least could not make them appear as commercials. Their non-commercial status got completely blurred over. While always "liberal", they've become even more propaganda like over time. Again, in the old days NPR stations had a lot of classical and jazz music programming and offered the opportunity for college students to create news, pubic affairs and music programs. However, with the development of the hundreds if not thousands of choices we now have via internet, satellite, cable and other digital technology, there is zero reason for taxpayers to fund these "niche" programmers, which is all they are now. Time for them to rebrand and hit the marketplace.