ABSTRACT
It may now seem extraordinary that the BBC did not set about studying its public systematically until ten years after it had become a public corporation. But when anyone suggested that it was out of touch with its public, it would point to its postbag. Listeners had not waited to be asked their opinions; they had volunteered them. From the first the BBC had been inundated with letters from listeners. There were so many, they were so varied in what they dealt with and in the views that they expressed and they seemed so manifestly authentic that few questioned their adequacy as a guide to listener opinion. A broadcaster who could triumphantly point to a pile of letters acclaiming his programme seemed to have the final answer to anyone who had the temerity to criticise it.
