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June 2023: Top Five Reasons Teaching & Hybrid Listeners Listen

Gender and Age Breakdown

The 2023 Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey is out! Almost 15,000 respondents from three different formats, including Music stations, Music and Teaching stations and Teaching stations and programs. The findings are enlightening.

In the survey, we presented respondents with almost twenty different reasons they might listen to their Christian radio station or program. Here are the Top Five Main Reasons broken out by age: Under 55s (Younger) and Over 55s (Older) and by gender for Hybrid and Teaching Station/Program respondents. The numbers are the percentage of respondents who indicated that’s a Main Reason they listen:

Top Five Main Reasons (Hybrid)

 Women under 55 Women 55+ Men under 55 Men 55+
1. It helps you grow spiritually 89% 89% 85% 83%
2. It helps you worship God throughout the day  87% 86% 81% 76%
3. It helps you understand the Bible better 72% 77% 77% 73%
4. You want to be encouraged 76% 76% 66% 64%
5. You like worshipful Christian music 66% 64% 52% 52%

Top Five Main Reasons (Teaching)

 Women under 55 Women 55+ Men under 55 Men 55+
1. It helps you grow spiritually 91% 93% 81% 88%
2. It helps you worship God throughout the day  80% 85% 84% 81%
3. It helps you understand the Bible better 84% 88% 83% 76%
4. You want to be encouraged 77% 69% 81% 72%
5. You like worshipful Christian music 79% 76% 64% 64%

Please note: Almost all age/gender respondents agreed on the bolded Main Reasons over 80 percent.

Two headlines:

  1. The differences between Younger and Older are negligible. The biggest differences are between Women and Men – the scores for Women are generally higher.
  2. Secondly, your listener is coming to you for Spiritual Growth. The more you deliver on this and less on other things, the deeper your ministry impact. This includes Worship for Teaching Stations and Programs.

Coming next month: From the 2023 Why Listen? Survey, we focus on the reasons respondents tune away or turn off. Do less of these things and grow your ministry impact.

The 2023 Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey is out! Almost 15,000 respondents from three different formats – Music and Teaching (Hybrid) stations, Teaching stations and programs and All-Music stations. The findings are fascinating.

This month, we begin a series of presentations of the findings from the large nationwide survey, specifically designed for Hybrid and Teaching broadcasters.

In the survey, we presented respondents about twenty different reasons they might listen to their Christian radio station. Here are the Top Five Main Reasons for Hybrid Station respondents. The numbers are the percentage of respondents who indicated that’s a Main Reason they listen:

Top Five Main Reasons to Listen (Hybrid)

1. It helps you grow spiritually 85%
2. It helps you worship God throughout the day 84%
3. You want to be encouraged 73%
4. You like worshipful Christian music 71%
5. It helps you understand the Bible better 71%

Now check out the Top Five Main Reasons for All-Teaching Station and Program respondents. Again, the numbers are the percentage of respondents who indicated that’s a Main Reason they listen:

Top Five Main Reasons to Listen (Teaching)

1. It helps you grow spiritually 92%
2. It helps you understand the Bible better 85%
3. It helps you worship God throughout the day 81%
4. You want to hear sermons 77%
5. You want to be encouraged 71%

Please note the Main Reasons in bold, the ones over 80 percent of our respondents agreed on.

We believe there are at least two headlines to zero in on. First, your listener is coming to you for Spiritual Growth. The more you deliver on this and less on other things, the more she will keep coming to you.

Secondly, listeners want help from you with worshipping God . . . and they don’t necessarily identify worship with songs. It’s the #3 reason they come to Teaching Stations and Programs, who generally don’t play songs.

Coming next month: From the 2023 Why Listen? Survey, we re-examine the Main Reasons, focusing on the differences between Women and Men, Younger and Older.

If you get to know your listener, and you gear your program, station or podcast more toward your listener, you’ll have more listeners. 

Said a different way, those of us who think about our program, station or podcast all day are not good at judging what our listeners want, unless we better understand who’s listening, where they’re listening, and what’s on their mind and heart when they’re listening. This means we must take our personal opinion out and listen to them. 

How do we know this? We’ve asked. In research. And we’ve observed what results in more listeners. After programming stations, programs and podcasts for over 40 years, and observing what the highest performing entities do, I’m more convinced than ever that listening to your listeners and acting on that information really is the secret sauce. 

The following “Four A’s” are how we recommend you think about this: 

  1. Attitude. Listening to your listener is an attitude . . . of putting your personal opinion aside and pursuing what your listener thinks, what preferences she has, how and where she listens, and what will cause her to stay or come back more often.  
  2. Ask. The Right Questions of The Right People. True story. I once was the Program Director of an NFL team’s radio flagship station. There was a change in the team’s front office leadership and along with new people, they brought in a new song to play at home games to celebrate the team scoring. Problem – fans loved the old song they had played for years when the team scored! And were very vocal about it. When the team scored in their first home game after the announcement and played the new song, fans booed! The team decided quickly to go back to the original celebration song. When we asked team leadership how this could have happened, they said they’d done research and the new song was more popular. We then asked where they had done the research. They said they’d researched people in a town . . . 500 miles away, where likely no one knew the song or cared about the team. In fact, there’s a rival NFL team in that city! That’s a story of researching the wrong people.  
  3. Acknowledge. That you will be surprised. Often, what we discover from listeners is different from what we expected. We’ve been surprised by Christian radio listeners’ appetite for worship music (it’s huge) and their interest in humor (it’s big) as part of a Christian station or program. And surprised by that same audience’s rejection of chatter about pop culture being a part of a Christian station’s programming recipe. Chances are when you listen to your listeners, you too will be surprised!
  4. Act. On the information. It doesn’t count if it’s not coming out of the earbuds. Listen to your listeners, then focus on how you’re going to make the sound they want happen. 

I presented these ideas at the NRB Convention in Nashville. Visit our CONFERENCE RESOURCE page for a copy of the PowerPoint from that presentation.  Contact us for further conversation on this key area. 

One of the hottest topics among Christian radio friends right now is podcasting. Fascinating findings in the The 2021 Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey, with almost 11,000 respondents from three different formats: Music/Teaching (Hybrid) stations, All-Teaching stations/programs, and Music (CCM) stations on this topic. 

Here’s the headline: There are dramatic differences in the use of Christian podcasts among the three formats.  

Here’s how we asked the question: In the last week or so, how many times have you listened online to podcasts (online programming available for you to listen anytime) from any Christian radio ministry? 

We took the percentage of respondents who answered from “10+ times” to “1” and added them up. And then we compared to the percentage who indicated they did not listen to online podcasts from any Christian radio ministry. And here are the results by format of those who indicated hearing podcasts from Christian radio ministries in the past week: 

CCM Listeners: 35% 

Hybrid (Music and Teaching) Listeners: 51% 

Teaching/Spoken Word Stations & Programs: 63%

What does this mean?

Nearly two-thirds of listeners who came from Teaching & Spoken Word stations have listened to at least one podcast from a Christian radio ministry within the past week. But only about one-third of listeners who came from CCM stations have done the same. The prevalence of listening to online, on-demand programming among Teaching Station listeners is massive. 

And it makes sense. These are listeners who have specifically chosen long-form Teaching. If they hear it on the radio, they are likely to either merge in the middle of the program . . . or they are likely to have to leave before the program ends. Either way, it would seem to be the kind of programming that is tailor-made for on-demand consumption. And two-thirds of our respondents have already made that choice. 

Among the folks in the survey, almost everyone indicated Christian radio – FM or AM – listening. For each of the three formats, 96% or more of the respondents indicated recent listening to the station that sent them the survey. So, it would appear these online choices are in addition to, not instead of, their radio listening.  

A second headline: It appears there’s a lot of “backing and forthing” – friends who listen to the radio and to podcasts. 

Strategizing podcasting success is #1 on our list as a topic of discussion as we head into NRB in a few weeks. We’re setting meetings now and would love to get together if you’ll be there in Nashville. Just REACH OUT to us and we’ll set a time either there or via Zoom, when you’re ready! 

…in the 2021 Why Listen Survey

The 2021 Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey talked to almost 11,000 respondents with over a million data points  from three different formats, including  Music/Teaching (Hybrid) stations, and All-Teaching stations/programs, and Music stations.

There’s much discussion about focusing our radio stations and programs on people beyond the nuclear family. In 2022, there are way more folks listening with different marital statuses than those who have married for the first time. Here are the Top Five Marital Statuses ranked in the recent nationwide survey:

Top Marital Statuses among Teaching and Hybrid Listeners

Hybrid Teaching
1. Married First Time 46% 1. Married First Time 44%
2. Re-married 17% 2. Re-married 21%
3. Divorced 15% 3. Divorced 12%
4. Single/Never Married 12% 4. Single/Never Married 11%
5. Widowed 9% 5. Widowed 10%

What do I do with this data?

Here’s a way to think about this: If you’re talking to your listener as if he or she is married for the first time, you’re talking to only half of your listeners. And if you assume they are married – for the first time or  re-married – you’re still talking to only about two-thirds of the listeners. Over 30% of the Hybrid and Teaching listeners in the Why Listen® survey are not currently married.

We’re coming up on Valentine’s Day. It’s a happy day for many people. Not so much for others. And if you’re going to be empathetic with all of your listeners, it’s crucial that you’re sensitive to this. Some of your listeners are happily married, some are single and wish they were married, some are divorced, some are unhappily married, and some are happily single.

It’s complicated. A good time to carefully choose our words.

The 2021 Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey heard from almost 11,000 respondents with over one million data points from three  different formats, including: All-Teaching stations & programs, Music/Teaching (Hybrid) stations, and CCM stations. 

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 denomination affiliation. Among respondents from Teaching and Hybrid stations, here are the Top Five Denominations:  

How can this data help you?

Many denominations. With 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. Heard this on the radio: A prominent national Christian broadcaster on his program – “we need to exhort fellow believers.” I asked friends from a Christian radio station to tell me the meaning of the word exhort. One thought it meant to exercise. A friend pointed out that refers to exert. Another thought that exhort is what you do when you know something damaging about someone and you expect payment to keep it quiet – to extort. These were smart broadcasters focused on a Biblical mission, but they didn’t know that exhort means to “strongly encourage or urge”. And if the national broadcaster had said “urge” instead of “exhort”, the message would have been clearer. 

If we’re going to be clear in our communication, we’ll need to consider what our multi-denominational listener – people of all nations . . . and denominations – understand. Clarity and understanding of the Truth is at stake. 

Coming in February: The Top Five Marital Statuses represented among Teaching and Hybrid respondents to the 2021 Why Listen? Survey. You already know not all are married for the first time – we’ll break down how different the respondents are in relation to marriage/life situations. 

 

 

The 2021 Finney Media Why Listen?®  Survey talked to almost 11,000 respondents with over a million data points from three different formats including: Music/Teaching (Hybrid) stations, All-Teaching stations and programs, and CCM stations.

We asked listeners about whether or not they gave to the ministry that sent them the survey. And to those who gave, we asked about what moved them to make a call, go online or write a check to make a gift. The top five responses from Hybrid station and Teaching station/program listeners are below. These are the percentage who said that reason is “very important” to their decision . . . a “trigger” for their move from listening to giving:

HYBRID

1. Feeling called by God to give 84%
2. I believe in the mission and vision of the ministry 83%
3. Knowing God tells us to support those who minister to us 67%
4. An emergency need at the ministry 37%
5. A story about someone’s life that was changed through the ministry 31%

TEACHING

1. I believe in the mission and vision of the ministry 88%
2. Feeling called by God to give 88%
3. Knowing God tells us to support those who minister to us 74%
4. An emergency need at the ministry 37%
5. A story about someone’s life that was changed through the ministry 26%

The no. 1 and no. 2 responses – “Feeling called by God to give” and “I believe in the mission and vision of the ministry”– are crucial. We recommend that you communicate clearly and often, your mission and vision. Both on-air and off-air. Your listener/donor is passionate about listening and passionate about helping. Help your team understand your why—your mission and vision–and be able to articulate it quickly.

Coming in January:  The Top Five Denominations represented among Hybrid and Teaching respondents in the 2021 Why Listen? Survey. If you believe making your message multi-denominationally and accessible is crucial, get ready to tackle how to talk to all five in ways all of those listeners can understand.

The Finney Media 2021 Why Listen?® Survey is out! Almost 11,000 respondents. Over one million data points. And, from three different formats: All-Teaching Stations & Programs, Music/Teaching (Hybrid) Stations, and CCM Stations.  

We asked about topics you might talk about on your stations and how interested your listener is in those topics. The two lists below are focused on the respondents who came from all-Teaching stations/programs and Hybrid stations. These are the percentages who indicated they are “very interested”. 

Teaching/Spoken Word

1. A word from Scripture and how it might apply to your life today  91%
2. Bible studies on topics such as prophecy, spiritual gifts, marriage, etc. 76%
3. A series on an entire book of the Bible 70%
4t. Regular news updates. 41%
4t. A prayer of thanksgiving from a local pastor. 41%

Hybrid

1. A word from Scripture and how it might apply to your life today . 88%
2. Bible studies on topics such as prophecy, spiritual gifts, marriage, etc. 70%
3. A series on an entire book of the Bible. 63%
4. A prayer of thanksgiving from a local pastor. 45%
5. Stories about how people helped a neighbor after a tragedy. 43%

SPIRITUAL GROWTH!  

In whatever form or forum we ask, our Teaching and Hybrid Christian radio listener is attracted to spiritual growth. Check out how far ahead of every other answer “A Word from Scripture and how it might apply to your life today” shows up. And then there are the Bible study topics! 

In fact, the topics above lean in a spiritual direction, including the idea of prayer on the radio. 

What topics scored lowest? 

Dead last, run quickly away from this, is “the latest news from Hollywood” at two percent “very interested”.    

Coming in December:  The Top Five Reasons Christian Radio Listeners Give to Your Station or Program. The Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey includes a lot of donors, so we’re asking the folks who support you now. 

Want more Why Listen Research? Visit our RESOURCES page.

With our 2021 Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey, we reached almost 11,000 respondents from three different formats: Music and Teaching (Hybrid) stations, all-Teaching stations and programs and all-Music stations. We learned plenty about why they listen…and why they leave.  

One of our big questions was about tune-outs. These are things your listener perceives you might do that would cause her to tune away or turn off the radio. These are the Top Five Tune-outs from the respondents who came from Hybrid stations and Teaching stations/programs. The percentages are the total of “very likely to turn off” and “somewhat likely to turn off”:

 Hybrid

1. They have a negative, angry, judgmental tone 77%
2. They talk about a topic I’m not interested in 50%
3. They play commercials 46%
4. An announcer talks too much 43%
5. They play songs I’m tired of 33%

Teaching

1. They have a negative, angry, judgmental tone 68%
2. They talk about a topic I’m not interested in  54%
3. They play commercials 48%
4. An announcer talks too much 46%
5. They play songs I’m tired of 38%

Last month, we focused on the no. 1 tune-out. These included negative, angry, judgmental tone and if you want listeners to stick with you, have a gentler, calmer approach to presenting the Gospel. 

This month, we’re focused on the no. 2 tuneout. Over half of our respondents in both formats, indicated they were very likely or somewhat likely to leave if the station or program was on a topic they weren’t interested in.  

Let’s take our imagination out of Christian radio for a moment. Let’s say you’re a Chicago sports fan and you’re listening to Chicago sports-talk radio. I’m writing this column in September. The no. 1 topic likely right now is Chicago Bears football. Cubs baseball, even though they’re out of the playoff race, is likely second most interesting. White Sox baseball is likely third most interesting (apologies to my friends who are Sox fans). Everything else (Bulls, Blackhawks, etc.) just aren’t all that interesting. If our sports-talk host has somehow landed on DePaul Men’s Basketball this evening and is talking about them because our caller asked a question about it, we’re dead with listeners. Very few people care. You can just hear the listeners leaving!  

It’s a similar challenge with Christian radio. If your listener shows up and you’re talking about something she doesn’t care about, there’s a good chance she’ll leave. Is it possible to be perfect on this with every listener every time? No. 

But you can certainly start here by: 

    • Being more aware of what she is interested in, which you can do by asking her.   
    • Then by increasing your focus on the topics she is interested in. 
    • Followed by decreasing your focus on the topics she isn’t interested in.

With as big a tune-out as uninteresting topics are, and with as much channel choices listeners have now, getting this right is crucial. 

We have an idea which topics these are and would love to discuss more if you’re interested. Visit our CONTACT US page to get connected.

The Finney Media 2021 Why Listen?® National Survey! Almost 11,000 respondents from three different formats: Music, all-Teaching and Hybrid stations. There’s so much fascinating information on our listeners. 

One of our big questions is about tune outs; the things your listener perceives you might do that would cause her to tune away or turn off the radio. The list below is focused on the respondents who came from Hybrid stations and Teaching stations/programs. The percentages are the total of “very likely to turn off” and “somewhat likely to turn off”: 

Hybrid

1. They have a negative, angry, judgmental tone 77%
2. They talk about a topic I’m not interested in 50%
3. They play commercials 46%
4. An announcer talks too much 43%
5. They play songs you’re tired of 33%

Teaching

1. They have a negative, angry, judgmental tone  68%
2. They talk about a topic I’m not interested in 54%
3. They play commercials 48%
4. An announcer talks too much 46%
5. They play songs you’re tired of 38%

How do you keep your listener locked in?

We discussed in this column LAST MONTH how the main listener reasons for listening to Christian radio could be summed up in four words: Spiritual Growth and Encouragement. Our top tune out confirms this. The no. 1 tune out – and it isn’t even close – is a negative, angry judgmental tone. 

Your listener is looking for spiritual growth and encouragement without negativity, without anger, without judgment. 

We believe that doesn’t just mean we take out things that are negative, angry, judgmental, but also that we’re proactive about including “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”* 

The other tune outs are important (“talking too much about something that’s not interesting” comes to mind), but none is as important to your listener as your station or program being the loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, self-controlled channel in an otherwise negative, angry, judgmental world.   

Coming in October: Thoughts on the data above about listeners leaving when we talk about topics she’s not interested in and how we stay focused on being Biblically bold while consistently staying on more interesting topics.  

*”The Fruits Of The Spirit” – Galatians 5:22 

 

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