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

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. 

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

Teaching

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.