Within the San Francisco Bay area there are 4 PBS type stations and one of them plays Classic Arts Showcase for approximately 3 hours throughout the day/evening. Last night was a film clip of Alexandra Danilova with Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo dancing a Massine ballet. This was from the 1940's and recently there was a clip featuring the Divertissement from the Midsummer's Nights Dream DVD that Pacific Northwest Ballet recorded.
There are opera singers, orchestra concerts, old film clips, in fact, just about anything that could qualify as something artistic (a documentary from the 1920's on the different architectural styles of apartment houses in Los Angeles now probably all gone, alas). These are only shown in 5-10 minute intervals with a nice short biography at the beginning and end of the segment. Unfortunately, the station alternates with DW TV and sometimes unexpectedly something like the Australian Ballet's Snowflakes will be cut off to start the "news of the hour" for Germany (in English).
There was a good point brought up about PBS having lost its way. After all, it was their mission for many years to produce Opera, Dance in America, etc., and hope to draw people in, not grasping for ratings so they can get bigger advertising bucks. In the meantime the other channels were created to grab as many of the higher rated shows as possible, such as Discovery, History, A&E. I'm hoping PBS will return to their "bread & butter" products.