The new radio ballads took as their inspiration the old radio ballads which, at the admittance of their makers, were revival based, which in those days, took their inspiration from the handful of remaining 'song carriers' many of which, even then, had never been involved in an active thriving folk tradition. Which makes the radio ballads - how many times rmoved from a living song tradition - I've lost count.
Got them and listened to them all with great interest - thanks all the same.
By the way, it is not my, nor MaColl's, nor your Uncle's definition - the one that's been kicking round since the 1830s, that provided us with our first contact to folk song via the revival, the one that all our research, literature and published and archived collections are based on and the one that still remains valid until it's replaced - care to have go?
Jim Carroll