It's true that commercial stations in the UK had folk and other specialist music shows in their early days. I discovered a lot of great music through listening to 'Here Be Dragons' with John Shaw on Sunday nights on Radio Trent in Nottingham.

At the moment I'd recommend Folkwaves on BBC Radio Derby (Mondays 7-9pm) and there are a lot of specialist music and singer-songwriter shows on BBC Radio Scotland, eg Iain Anderson's late night show.