Betsy, you dismissed the poetry programme as poems ready by dreary people, dull pretentious people giving themselves airs. You go on to suggest that people who enjoy poetry are 'wallies', along with those who enjoy ballet and opera. You're perfectly entitled not to enjoy any of these yourself, but your dismissal of those who do, and in particular the offensive language in which you express it, suggests to me that you have a chip on your shoulder. I regret you were offended, but your own language at attitude was offensive.

All art forms have similar aims: to generate emotions, to educate, to make you think differently, to entertain, among others. They do these in different ways, and some people are more receptive to different forms. People engage with poetry in much the same way and for the same reasons as they do with music, or any other art form.

You say you are puzzled why anyone would pay to go to a poetry reading. They do so for the same reason people pay to go to a concert. Hearing poetry read aloud is a different experience from reading it off a page, and hearing other people's interpretation may give you a different insight into a poem, just as different singers interpret songs differently.

To turn to your original point, there is nowhere near enough folk music (or poetry) on the radio, however the BBC regularly broadcasts an hour of folk a week compared with half an hour (repeated, like most Radio 4 programmes) of poetry. In terms of exposure, of the two folk music is doing rather better.