The sad thing is it was not always that way. The BBC were willing to give air time to anything that would make a good programme. One of my documentaries was entered for a Sony award. I very much doubt that I would be given a job in today's BBC. They have their own agenda that seems so far from the public service broadcasting brief that they once adopted. The interview techniques I was taught at Broadcasting house are now abandoned, and aggression and interruption is the new morality.
The news reporting is posed in such a way as to demonstrate their own agenda, so we hear details of the economy prefaced by statements such as 'Despite the strike....Despite Brexit...In the face of union threats... Provoked by far right or far left activists,,,and on it goes.
So what of our Folk Song programmes? Sorry people but in house programming is finished. The new employment rules brought in 8 years ago gave you a choice. Sign on the dotted line as an employee or bugger off. The legion of freelance musicians and enthusiasts were forced to form their own companies, and produce their own shows on their own equipment, or join the payroll and do as they are told and tow the line and dance to the corporate tune. (When did Folkies ever tow the line?) As Jim correctly points out anything outside the BBC control is ignored or axed. The future is uncertain. It's likely that the BBC will slowly slip in the ratings, and the programming will become less and less diverse. No in house dramas will be commissioned and nothing will reach our ears and eyes unless it is privately produced and dances to their tune.
The backlash will see more and more YouTube based podcasts, News services, and opinion videos, with none of the training, professional approach and production values of the past. The result will range from the boring through to the downright dangerous as we have seen. Who is to blame? Those who casually threw away the old tried and tested values of public service broadcasting, and did a runner with a suitcase full of public money. So no change there I hear you cry!