It's a one-size-fits-all response from Simon Cornes - I got it, too. It seems that they want to get rid of anything that doesn't fit the bland, generic content that they imagine everyone wants. So - we'll have a nation of radio stations all playing exactly the same stuff all the time. At this rate they may as well pack up and just have Radio Two. There's probably more folk on Radcliffe and Maconie than there will be on the brave new world of non-stop drive-time local radio.

Is there a future for folk, roots, world, jazz, blues and country shows? The decisions to axe of Folkwaves and A World in London and the justifications the Beeb are using suggests this may just be the tip of the iceberg.

Yet at the same time folk coverage on TV is having a mini-renaissance. Someone at the Beeb must think there's an audience for it.