BBC Radio Two provides easy listening for mass audiences. It's there to calm frustrated motorists stuck in traffic jams, and to cheer lonely home-makers struggling with mountains of dirty laundry.

On the whole, R2 does this job pretty well. So why be astonished if its "flagship" folk programme (and the associated awards list) is usually a tad bland? Blandness is what the majority of R2 listeners appear to want. And what's bland is not always bad – though something's wrong with radio if bland is all it ever has to offer.

Viewed from this perspective, it's encouraging that some unfamiliar and challenging material does get aired on the Harding show, along with all the predictable items from the official play-list. What's more worrying is how little coverage of folk music there is elsewhere on BBC radio.   (Compare the quantity, the range, and the quality of the jazz programmes on Radio Three, and ask yourself – or your Controller – why folk doesn't get similar attention.)

As to the question of whether this unfortunate situation is part of a wider middle-class conspiracy to deprive the workers of their rights – well, I have serious doubts about that, but lack the time to debate the issue here.   Musicians of all genres - amateurs, semi-pros and professionals - have known hard times before this.   Individuals may fall by the wayside, but the music survives. And it will continue to survive, if we care enough about it.

Wassail!