I once played in that Playhouse Theatre on Country Meets Folk. Probably 1969 or thereabouts. I was in the Derek Sarjeant Folk Trio at the time (sort of Campbells meets Spinners), and our agent was the much missed Sandy Glennon. (He seemed to have everybody on his books at the time). Trouble is, poor old Sandy had a perverse sense of geography (and hated to turn down bookings!!), so we played in Manchester on the Friday night, drove down to London to do CMF at lunchtime on the Saturday, and then drove back up to Sheffield on the Saturday night!
I still have the script for Country Meets Folk as well. Johnny Silvo was compering, and the other guests on the show were the Johnstons and the Overlanders, and the featured new release was the Humblebums (Gerry Rafferty and Billy Connolly). Aahh - heady days.
The show went out live on Saturday lunchtime between 12.30 and 1.30, and we had to stop in the middle whilst they went over to the 1 o'clock News. The whole thing was timed to the second (applause 7 seconds!) and was one of the most nerve-racking experiences of my life!
Nowadays, Smooth Ops record the Mike Harding show, and Mike puts his links in afterwards, either in his studio in Dent or at his home in Ireland. All done by phone or internet.
Interestingly, at the time CMF was colloquially known as "Country Swamps Folk" and was much-maligned. I suspect that, had there been a Mudcat at the time, it would have been the subject of some lengthy threads, and much moaning. Just like the MH show has a pre-dilection for all things Kate Rusby, CMF strangely seemed to have a surfeit of Sandy Glennon artists, as did the Jim Lloyd show feature a lot of the Yetties (who just happened to be managed by one James Lloyd!).
Which just goes to prove that nothing much changes really.