it has been said several times on this thread and othes that the R2 folk awards are bringing Folk Music to a wider audience, Yes they are how ever on the basis of the Live acts (which i enjoyed) I would have had the radio at work taken off me by my R1/Galaxy radio listening staff. I do tend to have to the same issue on a Wednesday night when MH plays alot of ballads and long traditional songs, I get the wtf are we listening too now. However when MH plays the more up beat stuff I get "well this is alright " kind of comments

So do Smooth Ops /Radio 2 /Folk awards really do any thing to bring Folk Music to the wider audience