as seen in the 2023 Finney Media Why Listen® Survey
The 2023 Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey included amost 15,000 respondents from three different formats: Music stations, Music/Teaching stations, All-Teaching stations, and Programs.
One of the challenges we face and opportunities we have, unlike a church which is focused on one particular denomination, is that our radio stations and programs are multi-denominational. They are heard by people from many denominations. In our nationwide survey, we asked about denominational affiliation. Among respondents from CCM stations, here are the Top Five Denominations:
Top Five Denominations among CCM Listeners
| 1. Non-denominational/Bible/Community | 30% |
| 2. Baptist | 30% |
| 3. Lutheran | 10% |
| 4. Pentecostal/Charismatic | 10% |
| 5. Catholic | 7% |
The first four denominations comprise 80 percent. The other 20 percent are led by Catholics at 7 percent which reminds us thatmany denominations have different ways of worship and different words they use in their worship and ways they communicate with each other.
For us to reach them and perhaps many who haven’t even given us a pre-set yet, we’ll need to focus on using words and concepts that many or most understand.
A story to help illustrate: Recently a friend from our Bible Study group pulled me aside after class. She grew up Catholic and is now Baptist. She leads a Bible Study Fellowship class. She’s reads her Bible and pays attention. She was curious about a word that had come up in our group that morning that she didn’t know the meaning of, “liturgy.” I know. I was surprised too. She grew up Catholic but didn’t know the meaning of the words.
But I shouldn’t be surprised because we do research with believers who listen to Christian radio. Many don’t know the meaning of a lot of words/phrases/concepts . . . things you would expect that they know.
If we’re going to be clear in our communication, we’ll need to consider what our multi-denominational listener, people of all nationsand denominations understands. We need to be Bible-focused and obvious. Clarity and understanding of the Truth is at stake.]
Coming in February: The Top Five Testing Songs from our nationwide research over the past few months from each of the past ten years. You’ll want to be sure to include these songs in your testing and consideration for your library!
