Alocal television station conducts what they refer to as "surveys," in which they ask viewers to call in their opinions to various topics. these "surveys" are not considered a scientific poll because the television station

A scientific poll gives each person in a given group the same chance of being selected, it would have unbiased questions, define the population, make a sample... A local television station's "survey" could not be considered as such, due to the fact that their questions are likely to be biased towards their own business interests, and although it will be shared with viewers of the station, this can vary at many different given times, so it could not be considered scientifically viable.