Folksy

It's a time that needs surefootedness at the BBC, and Bob Shennan had been doing so well. He's quietly picked up St Clare of Balding to replace Aled Jones, now an ITV brand, in the Radio 2 God slot, and has been cultivating Zoe Ball and Sarah Cox with fill-in slots around the network.

But his PR machine didn't quite "manage" the departure of Mike Harding, whose contract to present the network's weekly folk show has been ended after 15 years. Mr Harding said the call from Bob was the only call he'd ever had from the Controller. That's over a period of 176 shows and four Folk On 2 awards ceremonies. Harding's version was that Bob wanted the show to be "live"; Harding said he was ready to do that, but it wasn't enough to keep the 67-year-old in post.  Mr Harding's assessment of his show's figures are in the chart below.

Folk will now be in the hands of Mark Radcliffe. The genre used to feature much more heavily in early Radio 2 schedules.  The station started in 1967 with "My Kind of Folk" (sort of linked by some of the performers, including variety-meets-world music sound of Los Paraguayos), and "Country Meets Folk" with Wally Whyton. Jim Lloyd arrived in 1970. And there was Folkweave with Tony Capstick. Lloyd, who married Controller Frances Line, survived in various evening slots until retirement in 1997, and Jim Moir, who replaced Frances, brought in the Rochdale Cowboy, Mike Harding.

The same year Moir hired Steve Wright....