There has been some narrowness of perspective here in some of the early posts, I think. BBC Radio 2 UK does only have one hour per week, and that carries rather an over-preponderance of American and American-style singer-songwriter stuff for my taste -much of it has very little at all to do with folk music in my own view- but Radio 3 has World Routes (one hour weekly); Andy Kershaw (75 minutes weekly), and Late Junction (five hours weekly): these all carry a certain amount of material both from traditional sources and from singer-songwriters. Additionally, Radio 4 carries folk music features from time to time, both "stand-alones" (a few days ago there was a half-hour feature on the Sami music festival in Norway) and features in magazine programmes like Woman's Hour.

Most of the programmes Padre mentions are Scotland only; though transmissions can be received in parts of England, this is variable and cannot be relied upon. From the point of view of someone living outside the reception area, these are no more accessible than somebody else's local radio. Internet broadcasting redresses this to some extent, but is not a substitute for direct-to-air broadcasting available throughout the UK.

It has to be understood that there are several aspects to folk music from the point of view of programme planners and regular listeners of the various stations. There is "serious" folk music; that is to say, genuine traditional singers and musicians, top-end Revival performers like Martin Carthy, and, on the song-writing side, fashionable performers like Gillian Welch. This is the kind of thing likely to appear on Radio 3, with the emphasis strongly on the fashionable and foreign much of the time. Then there is the Radio 2 "easy listening" kind; essentially the material that Mike Harding plays, though he does air a certain amount of more substantial music as well. Radio 4 carries some of each, with the accent more on the "serious" end.

This is still not enough, of course, but it is more than has been recognised so far. It would be pointless to demand equal representation with "classical" (or, more properly, "art" music) but there is no reason why folk music should not be treated equally with, for example, jazz. There is also no reason beyond fashion why English music should not receive equal air-time to Scottish or Irish music; but programmers of all kinds are frequently driven by fashion, whether or not they would openly admit it.