I understand that there is a lot of crankiness that there is not more folk music on the BBC national channels, but this is not Smooth Operations' fault.

I've been listening to the Harding show for seven years. The worst thing I can say is that he represents the conservative (stylistic, not political) face of British folk. The Harding show is a good guide to current popular folk music for the general listener, and even for someone like myself who considers himself a bit of a specialist, it provides valuable tips on new releases and performers. I'd have to dig out some playlists, but seems to me that somewhere around 25% of Harding's selections could be deemed traditional songs and tunes.   And, for me, Harding's show inspires a decent number of CD purchases each year.

And if you still want to be cranky about Harding, get on the net and start playing with the other BBC radio folk shows. Good heavens, you have a lot of them!! I generally listen to: Folkwaves (Radio Derby), Travelling Folk with Archie Fisher, Global Gathering (when it's not too Latin for my tastes), Late Junction (a surprising amount of traditional music buried in amongst the classical, jazz and experimental stuff). Sometimes I listen to Genevieve Tudor (Radio Shropshire) and Frank Hennessy (Radio Wales).   

It doesn't matter if it's a local programme on transmitter towers; on the Internet, it's a show with a global audience, and the BBC even lets you listen at the time of your convenience. And you can even fast forward to the good bits now!!!

Political advisory: my position is that my strongest interests are in contemporary presentations of traditional material.