>NPR has advertisements on their podcasts, usually at the beginning and/or end of a show.<

I would love to see all advertising done this way--announce who makes the content possible, then get out of the way of the content...remind us again at the end where the funding came from if you wish...tasteful, dignified, makes the point, and grants recognition...

When advertising annoys people it's almost always because it gets in the way of the content...it distracts from what one is there to actually "see"...

Something so simple you'd think almost anyone could grasp the concept, yet so many advertisers get advertising completely wrong...web pages are chock full of garish flashing click-bait nonsense...

Disclosure: I am a long-time NPR listener and local station supporter...

I think public services in general have a different concept of what advertising means, compared to the private sector. It's almost like the advertiser is a donor rather than a client.

With private sector advertising, I almost expect the ads to be garish. If the only goal is to make money, then market forces push for the ads to become more and more invasive until you basically can't view the content thanks to all the ads.

I'm sure I'm echoing what many people have said before, but we need to find a way for content to stop being a cost center and start to become the actual source of revenue.

The Reply All podcast, and maybe all by Gimlet media, play a very specific background song when a paid advertisement is running. It's a very clever way of helping listeners differentiate.

Generic internet podcasts do this as well, sometimes with one in the middle.

Tell us we're being advertised to, give us a good deal relevant to our interests, you and the advertiser both win.

Problem is it's the same few companies every time in every podcast. There are apparently only 3 companies that podcast listeners are interested in, or at least that care to advertise to podcast listeners.

Here's looking at you Squarespace

I wish whoever downvoted you would explain why, because I agree 100% with your expressed sentiment.

I agree but for things like TV shows they need a lot more than one mention right at the top. Many budgets are a couple million dollars for an hour of TV.

It's not just on their podcasts, WABE in Atlanta has advertisements on the air.

They all do, but for the most part they're much better-timed and less crass than ads on commercial radio. Usually just a simple, "programming this hour is brought to you with help from our listeners and from the fine folks at Bob's Bicycle Barn."

I just want to say as an NPR-junkie of 20+ years, the lady that currently reads the promotional announcements makes me want to smash my phone, so I now mute quite often.

There's the current one, but the girl who briefly took over for the longtime male announcer was very dull indeed.