Thanks Pavane, I did do a search on Harvey Andrews and he has made several contributions on the positioning and promotion of folk music but I couldn't see anything specific to my point - have I missed something intersting?

I know there's lots of discussion about the place of folk music and how best to promote it but I'd like to stick to the specific point of national radio. To develop the Countess' point what I'm interested in is the idea of getting a strong point of presence on national radio for serious folk and traditional music even at the cost of accepting a less high profile minority categorisation. Obviously by "us" I don't just mean Mudcat but the folk music community in general and if the idea is worth considering it'll be no good lobbying for it via internet message boards but to be honest I'm not thinking of starting a campaign, just canvassing opinion.

Oh and s6k if you like Mike Harding on the web make sure you check out BBC Radio Derby's Folkwaves program which you can get live on Monday evenings from http://www.bbc.co.uk/derby/music/folkwaves/programme.shtml - it's really good.