Oh, I wouldn't say there is no audience for folk music on PBS. The Irish music specials have done very well. Then there is Mississippi River of Song, Austin City Limits, American Roots Music, Los Romeros: The Royal Family Of The Guitar, Accordion Dreams, Amazing Grace with Bill Moyers, Buena Vista Social Club, Joe Hill, Rock Jocks: The FM Revolution, Welcome to the Club: The Women of Rockabilly, and some of the other aforementioned programs that PBS/PBS affiliates have produced, is indicative of there being no audience for folk music on PBS.

Quite the contrary, I'd say. And jimmyt, you were obviously not only very fortunate to be able to educate yourself with student loans, you have, if you are able to afford donations to public broadcasting, are doing fairly well now too. But that doesn't change the fact that in the 2000 census data, only 26% of Americans over age 25 had earned a bachelors degree. Even today, that is still a pretty elite group, to my way of reckoning.

As to this forum being representative of "the folk" people will likely be shocked to find that the educational background of Internet users breaks down about roughly to this (courtesy of Internet Public Policy Network):

Education:

56% of users are college educated, but 26% of all Americans are college educated (E-Marketer);
40% of users are white collar workers (professional/managerial), but white collar workers make up only 18% of the population (E-Marketer);
28% of users have no college education, compared to 52% of the total population (Mediamark);
19% of people with a high school diploma or less have Internet access, (they make up 52% of the population). Meanwhile, 53% of people with a college degree have Internet access (they make up 23% of the population) (Baruch College Louis Harris and Associates, 1998 cited in the Benton Foundation's Losing Ground Bit by Bit).