By FCC law, there is a non-commercial portion of the band on the FM dial. That portion plays by a different set of FCC rules than the commercial station. In fact, it is very different.
Non-commercial educational (NCE) frequencies are not auctioned to the highest bidder. I think a NCE is not subject to 'spectrum use fees' and if they are charged for filing fees, they are minimal compared to commercial stations. To allow the NCE station to run commercials would take an act of Congress and then subject every NCE station to additional costs each year. This even extends to non-governmental fees and costs. Non-profits, the only entity that can hold a NCE license, gets 'breaks' the commercial station could only hope of. Plus consider the non-profit's income through the sale of commercials might be considered 'taxable income' in the eyes of the IRS if it doesn't void their non-profit status.
As for Public Radio, including NPR, I would contend Public Radio is seeing greater success in gaining listeners today than at any point in the past. I'd say it does not need fixing at this point. A major market NPR I know of was doing about 8.5 million a year in revenue. Not bad considering the top station in the market was doing about 24 million.
For all those thinking commercial radio station owners feel like they won the lottery, a friend bid on and won an FM covering a county of about 45,000 people in a small market. The winning bid was $126,000 or around that. By the time he got on the air he was in over $300,000. For his investors, that meant buying land, erecting a tower and building a building for the studio/office. At least if he goes under there are assets to sell and the station has greater value if sold. His stand alone FM does about $130,000 to $135,000 a year in revenue. His share of the listeners is about 5%. This beats the audience size of one local FM and an AM in the county. The dial is populated by 32 stations between AM and FM. His revenue share is about 7.5% of what is spent on radio in his small market. He beats two other stations in the county on revenue. In this respect he 'over performs' on revenue. 1.7 million is spent in radio among all the stations in the county: 6 stations and 7 translators. Stations outside the county actively sell here. Even so, he works for his lender for about another 7 years if he and his wife can get by on a salary that is not even minimum wage given the hours he and his wife puts in. He sees room for improvement in the coming years.
And if you're interested in an AM fulltime stand alone, I know of one with a history of billing $24,000 a year that is for sale cheap, but it must move it's tower to a new site. I'm guessing they don't have any 'owned' studio or tower site. Anybody got too much money burning a hole in your pocket? Oh yes, it hits over 100,000 people in a very over-radioed market.
And if a non-commercial FM is in the cards, a class A FM in a county of 30,000 that brings in almost $15,000 a year could be yours. They are not NPR. You can bet they do much better than the AM station above. No spectrum use fees, taxes and less maintenance since FMs are cheaper to maintain.