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I Want You to Want What I Want

By Jeff Connell, Audience Growth Consultant

Hotel California is a great song.   

I’m guessing you’ve been exposed to that song for a long time. I’m in my mid 40s; I grew up hearing that song with my dad. It’s still wildly popular today on Classic Hits, Rock, and even Soft AC stations.   

But it doesn’t belong on a secular Hot AC.   

No way.  There’s just no chance that someone who wants to hear California Love by 2Pac, Don’t Speak by No Doubt, Hello from Adele and the latest from Beyonce would want to hear that song.   

Except they do.   

Those are the top five songs in our Hot AC music test. The Eagles?  #1! Now it was the live version from 1994, not the 1977 original, but truth be told, it caught me off guard. I knew it was popular in our prior Music Test, but it was now a trend I couldn’t argue with.   

It’s one of their favorites. Actually, it is their favorite. Across numerous demo splits, even.   

Earlier in my career, I would have probably passed. I would have argued that it’s the “wrong texture” and “what you don’t play can’t hurt you.” There’s validity to those arguments sometimes.    

I would have argued that I know what brand “we’re creating,” and that “they can get that other places” and “it’s not unique to us, so it’s less valuable.” Also true. 

However, there is a hubris to that thinking that I’ve been guilty of. I’m certain we’ve all probably flirted with it if not fallen victim to it.   

I want you to want what I want you to want.   

I want you to love the format I’ve designed in my head. That song that I just know is going to be a smash. I want to play the songs I want to and leave out the ones I don’t leave room for in my head. I want you to love this talent, this benchmark, this promotion. I don’t want to do or be that thing I was hoping to avoid or reinvent my way around.   

That’s often a detour from the success your ministry could have. If the purpose is a deeper ministry relationship with more listeners, often the choices are clear. They just aren’t always as “exciting” as we might hope they might be.   

In my first Christian programming work, repeatedly in our music tests and perceptuals, we received feedback that was challenging.  As an organization, we were feeling led to grow our audience, but that often was in conflict with a musical position that we had long seen ourselves in. It caused consternation internally about what direction we should go and how to achieve it.    

I remember wrestling with music results that showed our P1 audience often clearly preferred songs we were not playing regularly, and similarly weren’t as in love with other songs we were playing more often.  

An example: Revelation Song by Phillips, Craig & Dean. That song scored huge. It’s spot on with Gospel purpose. And we played it. But I sure ran into all kinds of internal resistance. Sure, they might like Revelation Song, but that wasn’t us.  

Except, the listener was telling us that’s what she wanted.   

We wanted her to want what we wanted . . . and played it. But with a fair amount of internal “hairy eyeball’ resistance. 

Today, that’s why I choose to play Hotel California. On a secular Hot AC. In 2024. The listener loves it! 

I learned something. I could get out of the way. I knew my product existed beyond what my vision had been for it originally. I knew that I didn’t have all the answers. And I knew my personal preference could take a backseat. 

Now, I want them to get what they want.  

And everyone wins as a result.  

By Gary Morland, Finney Media Talent Coach

At your worst moment it would be nice to think your best friends would be with you.

At Jesus’ worst moment at the cross there were several.

But only one was a disciple friend. He was the one who saw himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”

It was all about that relationship. His heart, not the facts, kept John at the cross.

The facts led the other disciples away from the cross and into hiding.

Which makes sense, since at this point there was seemingly nothing they could do.

And they were probably afraid the Jews would arrest and crucify them, too.

Their thinking probably warned them about being at the cross. They listened to their heads. I would.

Several women were also at the cross.

Their heads may have told them about risk and uselessness, but their hearts told them this was where they belonged.

They went with their hearts.

Two days later, Mary’s heart had her at the tomb in the morning in the dark.

Not because she expected anything to happen, but because she was all about the connection of her heart with Jesus.

Your heart makes you do things your head would laugh at.

The disciples got another chance when Mary told them Jesus was gone and they ran to the tomb to see.

At the tomb, their heads added up the facts.

Then they went home. Even the disciple whom Jesus loved.

Why stay if Jesus is dead and gone? What reason is there to stay if there’s nothing to do? It makes sense they would leave.

But Mary and her heart connection remained at the tomb when Peter and John left.

To her, what else was there for her to do but be at the last place she saw Jesus? Her heart demanded it.

The disciples and their heads missed it.

They missed the most momentous, meaningful event to ever happen in the history of the universe – the resurrection.

The reality of a new supernatural life was first made known, not to Jesus’ chosen men and their heads, but to Mary and her heart that illogically compelled her to stay.

Today, I want to connect with people’s hearts first, personally and in my communication work. And I want them to connect with mine.

We’ll always have projects and goals and issues, but I hope I grow to value the heart connection first and most, like Jesus.

Here at Finney Media, our goal is Audience Growth—spiritually and hearts reached.

To that end, we survey Christian radio listeners from across the country for the Why Listen? Survey. This past year, almost 15,000 listeners were invited by CCM stations, Teaching/Music stations and all-Teaching stations and programs.

And the headlines from the survey are clear. Our listeners want Jesus.

They are more about spiritual encouragement, spiritual growth, the Bible, prayer and worship than many people expect.

They don’t want  nor do they expect to hear from us about:

  • Pop Culture
  • Sports
  • Politics
  • News

We see more Christian audio channels who are narrowing their focus on messages about Christ, spiritual growth, spiritual encouragement and we see record numbers of listeners gravitate to their station or podcast.

In a crowded, confusing audio choice environment, we achieve more listeners, more ministry impact by narrowing our focus.

  • Ask us about the station that ended hard news and started doing only stories consistent with Biblical encouragement and how they are at record audience levels.
  • About the skyrocketing ministry impact at the station that requires its on-air team to use Scripture – not a verse of the day but something the announcer has researched – at least hourly.
  • About how donor response went way up when the program became more focused on the most effective Biblical content, which meant reducing other messages.
  • About the morning show with stronger reach than ever after they started praying more often on air.

Here’s why this matters to us all: In most towns, there used to be no more than 50 choices for audio content, the radio stations in that town. Even in the largest markets, there were no more than 75 choices.

Today? With smartphones and smart speakers, there’s thousands of options. Your podcast, your radio stations, your program are now jostling with thousands of other choices.

This is an environment for your podcast or your radio station where the only way to achieve audience growth is to narrow your focus to your mission and your listeners’ preferences and expectations. This is how to achieve more listeners and more ministry impact.

This month, I’m with the other team members of Finney Media at the 2024 NRB Convention in Nashville, TN and the team will be at the CMB Gold Event in Dallas, TX. We’d love to discuss this in more depth with you.

Happy New Year! 

Some thoughts from PASTOR CHUCK SWINDOLL for inspiration as we head into 2024: 

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home. 

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.  

The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. 

I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.  

Scripture provides the amen, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8 ESV) 

 

Is your radio station focused and on a Biblical mission of reaching more people for Jesus with spiritual truth and encouragement? 

Then it’s important that you focus your breaks relentlessly on topics that are already on your listener’s mind and heart. Meet her where she is. 

In our 2023 Finney Media Why Listen® nationwide Christian radio survey, almost 50 percent of respondents indicated they are very likely or somewhat likely to tune away or turn the radio off when we talk about a topic they are not interested in. If you’re trying to grow listenership, that’s a big incentive to focus on topics of higher interest. 

For Christian radio listeners, it’s hard to find topics of lower interest than sports. Even when your team is winning in the playoffs.  

As I write this morning, the Texas Rangers, my hometown DFW baseball team have surprised the experts by making it to the American League Championship Series. I’m a baseball fan. I’m thrilled! How exciting that they’ll have a chance, for the first time since 2011, to get a shot at going to the World Series! 

It matters to me. But that doesn’t mean it matters to our Christian Radio listener.  

If we want to grow our listenership, we must be disciplined about putting our own interests aside and focusing on our listener’s interests. 

Should a Dallas-Fort Worth Christian Radio Morning Show mention the Rangers going to the playoffs today? Absolutely!  

Should they focus the rest of their show on spiritual encouragement, Scripture, relationships, and other topics of highest interest to the Christian radio listener? Yes! 

To reach more listeners, nothing works quite like getting focused and staying focused on where her head and heart are today.  

Written by Guest Blogger Beth Bacall, Sr. Talent Coach

Finish 2023 strong. Speak to the heart of our listeners with relatable and encouraging content. How?

What is heard coming out of the speakers begins with how you prepare for your show and the vision/programming direction of your station.

Friday night lights are on, Christmas decorations greet you as you enter Costco, and 2024 calendars are being considered. This fall season will soon be closely followed by winter happenings and a New Year. It will come faster than you think! Boost your on-air content to go beyond “something to talk about” or “what we usually talk about.”

Join me as we’ll take a glimpse at content generators geared toward the last quarter of this year. We’ll dig into how we can create moments that matter. Maybe it’s a local story, a station event, or a scripture verse that speaks to the day and time you are on the air.

Want to learn more? Reserve your seat at our next Finney Media webinar happening on September 26th at 11 a.m. CT/Noon ET. REGISTER TODAY!

 

How Your Listener is the Key to Longevity

Dave Sullivan at Radio Research Consortium is a very smart man. Check out the ARTICLE and video below. It’s important to watch the whole thing because he gets into analysis of Nielsen ratings for CCM stations toward the end:

The bottom line is this: in a Nielsen PPM world of declining Weekly Cume (how many listeners listen to radio for at least five minutes in a week) and declining Weekly Time Spent Listening (how long on average those radio listeners hear a station), CCM is the non-comm format that is growing.

It’s sobering news.

It echoes what we’re seeing in our research.

Are listeners more busy, more distracted? Yes.

Are uses of other media choices up the past few years? Yes. In audio, that’s especially true with streamed music and podcasts.

Are listeners looking for hopeful, uplifting channels like yours? Definitely!

Is there opportunity for us? Most definitely!!

Arguably, this is a golden age for CCM audio channels.

If we get our heads wrapped around how, where and how often listeners consume audio.

If we get past our personal biases and “that’s-the-way-we’ve-always-done-it’s” long enough to listen to our listener. And then act on what they tell us.

These are tough actions that are hard to do. I know. Even though I’ve been in the business all of my adult life, I struggle with this crucial step, too.

This is not compromise on the ministry mission. Instead, it’s a major focus on the sound that mission takes coming out of the speakers.

In a world of declining Cume and TSL, there is a way to address this. We can help you figure out a plan to grow your ministry impact, and not be left behind. We evaluate, we list specific items to consider doing, and we work on each aspect of your sound. Let’s talk about how you can reach your potential. Email us at Info@finneymedia.com.

 

Increase your ministry impact for the cost of only a little of your time 

It’s mid-year. A great time to be thinking about the second half of the year and ways to increase your ministry impact for little or no cost and just a few hours of your time. 

Let me give you an example to illustrate:

Here at Finney Media, we’re often involved with A-to-Z CCM Music Library Reviews. The kind where we’re discussing Titles and Artists and what rotations to put them in. Typically, we’ll ask our client friends to alphabetize their Titles. They’ll be looking at their A-to-Z library while we’re reviewing a separate A-to-Z list with nationwide spins. And we won’t be far into the songs beginning with A before we bring up a title that our client should consider playing.  

Not because the title is old or slow or some other programming objection. But because it just got overlooked. Somewhere along the way, they stopped playing it and never put it back in. 

By the time we get to Z, it’s likely we’ll have come across two dozen or more titles they should be playing. 

I ran a nine-day monitor of eleven randomly selected major, large and medium market stations and then picked three stations randomly. Looking at the past three years, here are three high testing songs that each of those three markets are not playing: 

Station A 

Into The Sea/Tasha Layton 2020 

The Blessing/Kari Jobe 2020 

There Was Jesus/Zach Williams 2019 

Station B 

Child Of Love/We The Kingdom 2020 

The Father’s House/Cory Asbury 2020 

Keep Me In The Moment/Jeremy Camp 2020 

Station C 

Miracles/Colton Dixon 2020 

Scars/I Am They 2018 

Rescue/Lauren Daigle 2018 

It’s possible they have low testing data on these songs. Or, it’s possible they’ve made a programming decision to not play them. But it more often seems songs like this just slipped through the cracks. High testing, often positive mood, often high energy songs that somehow ended up in Hold.  

How can you increase your ministry impact for the cost of only a little of your time? Do an audit of your music library and review your library against a monitor of other CCM stations. It’ll take no more than a couple hours. Do it this summer before the chaos of fall and/or fundraising season is upon you.  

And bring back those songs your listener loves! 

We’re ready to assist if you would like help with an audit like this. Reach us at info@finneymedia.com.  

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