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Like many a professional journalist, I am predisposed to scepticism about lobby groups.
They often provide good copy, of course, with rent-a-quote spokespeople inevitably available at the end of a phone.
They are usually organised and led by someone who, while feigning indifference, finds it rather fun to hog the publicity spotlight.
Members of these single-issue campaigning groups become characterised as do-gooders or self-appointed busybodies, and they tend to lose their influence as both journalists and their consumers switch off at the repetitive sound of grinding axes.
So it is a pleasure to write about a genuinely successful and influential group that has never fallen into the trap of trivialising its aims and objectives through media overkill — Voice of The Listener & Viewer (VLV).
This body, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this week, should not be confused — as it has been, sadly, so often — with the National Viewers & Listeners' Association (aka the Mary Whitehouse crowd).
VLV is certainly concerned about broadcasting content, but it is a very different organisation altogether.
Founded due to the enthusiasm of a remarkable woman, Jocelyn Hay, it has emerged as the most important champion of television and radio consumers by consistently pressing for the retention and extension of high-quality public service broadcasting.
Under Hay's peerless guidance, VLV has not fallen into the trap of shouting from the sidelines or using the press as a megaphone in order to fight its corner.
Instead, it has argued its case at private meetings, by staging seminars and arranging public conferences. Her attention to detail, her skill at dissecting reports and her ability to get to grips with complex policy documents has been impressive.
She and the VLV have therefore won the respect of successive BBC director-generals, BBC governors and trustees, ITV and Channel 4 executives, Ofcom's most senior staff and, most significantly, several government ministers.
The latest Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Andy Burnham, was so impressed with the VLV when he addressed its members two months ago that he has asked to repeat the exercise.
Given that VLV is very concerned indeed about whether the Government is committed enough to ensuring that the licence fee is ring-fenced for the BBC, this speaks volumes for the serious way the group goes about its business.
"What drives us," says Hay, "is the need to maintain a powerful BBC and a powerful public service broadcasting ethos."
Her unfailingly polite, articulate approach epitomises the VLV's campaigning style. But she has proved to be a terrier too ever since the days of 1983 when, with a couple of friends, she fought off proposals to turn Radio 4 into a news and current affairs channel.
It was the first of a number of victories, quietly achieved. VLV also argued passionately, and successfully, against the privatisation of Radios 1 and 2. Safeguarding the public service ethic has been Hay's watchword.
She has not been a lone campaigner. Aside from the VLV's 2000 individual members, there are 25 corporate members and a raft of academic institutions are signed up too.
That hardly amounts to a populist movement, and Hay concedes that the confusion with the Whitehouse organisation (since renamed Media Watch) has confused the public.
But the stakes are getting higher as the Government ponders ways to bolster Channel 4's finances by top-slicing the licence fee or, maybe, giving it the profits from the BBC's commercial arm, Worldwide.
Meanwhile, hardly a month passes without an Ofcom report that touches on the future of broadcasting as the digital revolution moves on apace.
So, there is much work for the VLV to do and, at 81, Hay is stepping down from the chair in favour of a former Panorama reporter, Richard Lindley.
She will become life president. Lindley says: "Jocelyn has been absolutely marvellous, ensuring that the VLV has made a serious contribution to all the debates about broadcasting over a quarter of a century. She's impossible to follow, but I'm going to try because the VLV is needed more than ever.
"It isn't elitist to fight for good programming. TV and radio are not a commodity. They cannot be left to the market. We in Britain do it better than anywhere else in the world and we mustn't lose that pre-eminence."
So Lindley, a fighting fit 72, is echoing the core beliefs of Hay. But the way that he says it suggests that he is setting out to raise the VLV's public awareness in future.
There have been indications that support for the licence fee among the British electorate may be waning. The arguments of newspaper owners and editors who argue that it is an unacceptable tax in the digital era has begun to take hold among the public.
With yet another Communications Act expected within the next five years, and very likely to occur under a different government, the pressure on licence fee funding for the BBC is likely to grow.
If Lindley is to counter what is likely to be a loud and coherent argument against the fee's continuance, he will need to broaden VLV's appeal and increase its membership.
In a random poll I discovered that few journalists even knew of VLV's existence, let alone its behind-the-scenes lobbying successes.
However, while raising awareness and making a little more noise, Lindley will also need to maintain organisation's credibility by continuing the academic approach pioneered by Hay. It's going to be something of a tightrope walk.
