As audiências como elemento de compreensão das tendências da rádio entre as décadas de 1940 e 1970

The very first audience panel information on Portugal dates back to the 1940s. The BBC, much listened to in Portugal, made announcements inviting listeners to write in with letters detailing the levels of reception and the quality of programs. In 1943, a weekly average of 75 letters was being delivered to the British Embassy in Lisbon. The panel was empirical, informal and based on a specific question and not about actual listener habits. To the best of our knowledge, only in 1951 was the first proper study of the field in Portugal undertaken by Salviano Cruz. As the 1960s turned into the 1970s, more regular studies began to be
launched. The universities were not yet studying either the means of communication or the market with such activities left to private sector companies even while still facing difficulties in raising potentially bothersome questions. A study commissioned from the IPOPE (the Portuguese Institute for Public Opinion and Market Studies) for Coats & Clarks, a textile industry based company, did begin to ask some social questions. A work on religious liberty in
1973, when the Concordat was undergoing negotiation, and even with authorisation by the State, would run into trouble.