with the occasional listener letter sent in

[sunyaer]

I found a sentence in a thread titled what is the difference between "gift" and "present"? at English stack exchange com website:

http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/7981/what-is-the-difference-between-gift-and-present

A radio show titled "Says You!" had a piece on "what's the difference?" The answer to gift vs present was that one gives a present in person, but sends a gift. The show itself seems well researched, with the occasional listener letter sent in and read as a correction.

What is the meaning of "with the occasional listener letter sent in and read as a correction"?

 

[JulianStuart]

People who listen to the show will (occasionally) send letters containing corrections for some of the "answers" on the show. (Occasionally) one of these letters will be read out on the show.

It's not completely clear from the sentence whether they only receive listener letters occasionally or they only read them out occasionally.

 

[Egmont]

I agree that it's not 100 percent clear, but I tend to think (from the position of "sent in" after "occasional listener letter") that it means letters are only sent occasionally.

 

[Warsaw Will]

Interesting little American / British difference - I'm pretty sure that in British English 'listener's letter' would be more usual, and in fact a site search of the BBC website gets 25 odd hits for the apostrophised version, but none for the other. But I see there are plenty of (mainly American) examples of 'listener letter' on Google, and at NPR (US public radio) it's 38 'listener letter' to 14 'listener's letter'.