I'd be interested to know how Smooth Operations worked with the Beeb in instances like this.

I mean, would it have been that the BBC powers-that-be would have approached the Smooth-Operations powers that be and said "we're a bit bored with this Mike Harding chap, got any suggestions who you could replace him with?". to which SmoothOps would have said "hmmm, how about our Mark Radcliffe?".

I mean, is it that "THE RADIO 2 FOLK SHOW" simply MUST be run by Smooth Operations - and therefore that any presenter of it must be sourced from the Smooth Ops "stable"?

Put it another way, if the Beeb were dissatisfied with some aspect of Mike Harding's folk show, could they have asked Smooth Operations to try to source someone completely new as presenter, like, say, Jim Moray or whoever?

It's a genuine question: I'm very curious to know how the system of tender for all these radio slots works. What, in theory, is stopping me, say, from starting a production company and volunteering my radio-show production services to the BBC?

And is it just me or is this whole thing of one radio DJ having 2 or 3 different shows on one station a bit of a new thing - well, a phenomenon that seems to have crept in over the last 10 years?