I have not paid the license fee for several years as I got rid of my tv in protest at the BBC's biased and rather stupid political and cultural coverage plus their ridiculous extortionary and thuggish license enforcement wing. They send me letters - I send them back. Screw them - there is plenty of stuff on the internet if you look - and I think that local community radio might be a good way of getting minority musics out there. Resonance FM in London is very good for a variety of out/experimental musics/art and some folk music, for example. The BBC is an outmoded, embarrasing, top heavy organisation and hopefully will not survive in its present form much longer in a decentralised digital age. Radio 3 is not bad - the rest - forget it. I would be quite happy to pay a subscription for what I want to listen to - when they catch up, or someone with the will in government scraps the BBC in its present form.
Re Folkwaves, the BBC obviously regard this show (along with the jazz show from Nottingham which I listen to occasionally) as appealing to a small audience so a soft target. Top down, arrogant - but anyone who has studied the BBC has known this for years anyway, so it comes as no surprise. Refuse to pay!