""Re loose comparison of Wogan to John Peel!?!?

Sacrilege to put those two names in the same thread much less sentence.""

I think you misunderstood my point Tam.

Since the sixties, almost all mainstream radio DJs have walked into the studio, and been handed a playlist by the producer, comprising almost entirely what the music industry wanted to plug.

That is the main reason why we've been subjected to years of "pop" music which owed its success to massive airtime obtained through the death grip of the record companies on radio and TV exposure, rather than to any intrinsic musical value.

Wogan and Peel had one thing (and only one thing) in common.

Both of them steadfastly refused to accept ANY outside control over their choice of playlist.

Peel regularly inserted folk performances into his programming. Wogan, less so, but they are there if you choose to look. Both were popular enough to make it stick

I mentioned Gerry Anderson in Northern Ireland, and forgot the one other that I know of, who is cut from the same cloth, and that is Frank Hennesy on Welsh radio.

I have to agree with Andy C above, that regional radio does turn up more folk, though perhaps not more English music.

The problem is that Auntie Beeb is tending to ditch local services, and with them, much which relates to folk.

Don T.