I’m happy to let you know that thanks to an agreement with JISC the Library has been given extended trial access to the primary source database BBC Listener Research Department, 1937-c.1950 from British Online Archives.

You can access the database via the E-resources trials page (listed as British Online Archive – BBC Listener Research Department, 1937-c.1950).
For off-campus access you will need to use the VPN.

Trial access ends 31st December 2017.

Founded in 1936 the BBC’s pioneering Listener Research Department (LRD) examined wireless listening in Britain nationwide and at a regional level. This database reproduces the entire available collection of weekly Audience Summaries, together with the weekly then daily Listening Barometers. Also included are the Audience Reaction Reports on specific programmes and Special Reports on particular themes or issues for the period, as well as some key policy documents produced by the LRD during these years, tracing the early development of what has come to be known as market research within the BBC.

Screenshot from ‘Audience research special reports’. LR/98 Hamburg broadcast propaganda.

During the Second World War, listener research took on a new urgency as the BBC became an indispensable part of life on the Home Front. The LRD’s wartime audience research, reproduced here for the first time, provides crucial insights into the listening habits and cultural preferences of the British people at this time, as well as detailed listener responses to some of the key radio programmes and personalities of the era, from ITMA and The Brains Trust to Winston Churchill and William Joyce, the voice of Nazi propaganda better known as Lord Haw-Haw. Through its special reports on topics ranging from news readers’ accents and evening listening habits to listeners’ views about Russia, this collection provides a unique and revealing window onto the behaviour, attitudes and preoccupations of the British people at a key moment in their history.

The database can be accessed for the duration of the trial period via e-resources trials. It can also be accessed via the History databases list and other relevant subject pages (listed as British Online Archive – BBC Listener Research Department, 1937-c.1950).
Access available until 31st December 2017.
Feedback welcome.

Access is only available to current students and staff at University of Edinburgh.

Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for History, Classics and Archaeology