ABSTRACT
In 1956, Dr Max Ralis, a Russian-speaking sociologist from Cornell University, was appointed head of the newly formed audience research division. After the merger of Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe in 1976, the audience research division of Radio Liberty was rechristened Soviet area audience and opinion research (SAAOR). Although SAAOR provides Radio Liberty with services such as programme reviews, background reports and various types of analysis, the keystone of its research is estimating the size of western radio audiences in the Soviet Union. The Ukraine, the Baltic states, and the Belorussian and Caucasian Soviet Socialist Republics are all areas with high rates of listening. During the late 1970s, SAAOR gathered survey data on a range of questions broadly related to civil liberties. Disapproval of Soviet policy in Afghanistan ran highest in non-Russian areas of the Soviet Union, particularly in the Baltic States, Central Asia and the Caucasus, and among non-Russian national groups.
