One proof of evolution is that there is still one living dinosaur, Bob
Harris, who has survived over the decades simply by working hard,
doing a good job, and being inoffensive, without benefit of any kind
of charisma.

When you think of Bob, immediately words like "worthy", and "earnest"
spring to mind, both to describe the bobster himself and the music and
musicians his show promotes.

The latest tourists to visit the UK always get a mention, are often
recorded at the BBC's Maida Vale studio with thirty pairs of tickets
given away to enthusiastic listeners from the provinces who fancy some
free entertainment to go along with their shopping in the capital.

Bob is personally known to all the artists whose music he plays, and
the gaps between musical tracks are salted with little anecdotes of
such encounters.

Bob plays mostly tasteful folk-rock by obscure (but worthy) artists,
from "great" albums. In fact Bob never plays anything from a lousy or
even mediocre album as he has never encountered one.

The average age of Bob listeners, or whispering Bobbers, is 58 1/2,
and most of them have been listening to him since he had his TV show
when they were teenagers and they viewed their black-and-white screens
through a haze of marijuana. Now they listen late at night, tucked up
in bed with a mug of hot cocoa, reading e-mails from the grandkids.

Coming next.... Malcolm Laycock.