I used to do that but the shows repeat and at the top of the hour or sometimes multiple times they repeat the same news over and over. I get someone else might be tuning in and not have heard the latest news
Maybe there's some middle ground where instead of a stream it's on demand but continuous. So I go to videostream.npr.com and since it knows it's a single user it can push the news once and then just be shows.
That said, youtube autoplay is the basic concept, it just sucks at what it recommends.
I guess this is basically how TV worked in the pre-streaming days - the new episode of whatever hot series aired during the prime time slot, and lesser slots were filled with reruns / resyndicated stuff.