David - I'd have to query one or two of your points. You said that there are radio programmes available on digital stations which are accesible by radio, or through the TV. I finally bought a DAB radio a year ago ... but don't listen to it all that much at the moment, as I tend to use other analogue radios in the house. I can also access some digital stations on Freeview through the television. However, the TV is not a satisfactory radio source - I can hardly pick it up and take it through to the kitchen, or into the bathroom etc! Additionally, I have yet to find any programmes on DAB radio or on Freeview which provide any evident folk programming. Can you suggest which stations I should be listening to, as I have yet to find them?

Additionally, I'd disagree that everyone "has digital now" ... probably true for TV, but definitely not for radio in my experience. None of my family or friends (with two exceptions that I'm aware of) is yet the owner of a DAB radio. And several don't yet have computers of any sort either. As to internet listening - I only normally do that when I am working at the computer ... otherwise I am tied down to a specific area of the house if I wish to listen to a full programme.

All of which comes back to the axing of folk radio programmes .. they are an incredibly useful source of information regarding local events. From personal experience I would point out that living in an area does not necessarily mean you know somebody who is aware of the local scene, or indeed, even if you are aware of it, that you necessarily know what is going on. For instance, we have a club in our town which has now been running successfully for five years. One young lady who had been living in the town for several years found out about it purely by chance ... and told us that she wished she had known about it sooner. This despite adverts in the local press, advertising cards seeded in all the expected places, adverts in fRoots etc. There is no real substitute at the moment for a regular radio programme which feeds that sort of information out to a large circle of people.

And I heard today that the dedicated folk programme on Radio Devon, which was taken over by Richard Digance after Jim Causley's short stint at the helm, has also recently been axed ... so that's another one down.