Based on data gathered in a larger study of audience response to the debates held during the 1976 campaign for the presidency of the United States, a study examined the validity of uses and gratifications measures and explored how these measures were affected by differing levels of audience media activity. The data was drawn from telephone interviews with more than 2,000 registered voters in a small city, who answered questions relating to their expectations concerning the debates and the gratifications they derived from watching the debates. The main eight items used to measure the expectations and gratifications were based on the work of J. Blumler and D. McQuail. The results showed that only three of the eight uses and gratifications measures provided any correlation between identical measures. The findings bring into question the validity and usefulness of the uses and gratifications measures. (FL)