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January 2020 BONUS: The Top Five CCM Morning Show Topics

This Finney’s Fast Five is a bonus edition for our clients and friends. A little post New Year’s gift to you!

At Finney Media, we conduct music tests with Christian Radio listeners across the United States. And, we include testing on morning show topics, asking listeners to rate topics on how interested they would be in hearing various topics on a wakeup show. In our surveying, 1 = not interested and 9 = very interested. During the last six months of 2019, here are the Top 5 topics, based on average score across multiple markets:

1. A Word from Scripture and how it might apply to your life today     8.2
2T. A word of encouragement from a Biblical devotional 8.1
2T. Free, fun activities to do with your family around town this weekend 8.1
4T. A story from a listener about how God has done a miracle in her life 7.5
4T. Information on a Christian concert in your area 7.5

We are consistently surprised by just how spiritual listeners want their Christian morning shows. To score an average 8 or higher means almost all respondents need to rate a topic at a 9, with few less than 9. Check out the top two topics. They rated higher in interest than weather, parenting and communicating in marriage. All of those do well, but not as well as personal spiritual growth themes.

Note also the “free, fun activities” topic near the top. It combines three of the areas that resonate strongly – saving money, saving time, and togetherness with family.

NOTE:  Save for another month….

If you’ve been wondering if your morning show should lean more in a spiritual/Jesus-focused direction, it sure looks like your listener would applaud if you do.

Read more about Finney Media’s RESEARCH work.

In the Finney MediaWhy Listen® Survey, we asked thousands of Christian Music Radio listeners across the country this question:

While there are many general reasons for donating to a radio ministry, there are often special circumstances that move you from just thinking about giving to actually making a CALL, going ONLINE or writing a CHECK to make a gift. Thinking of the last few times you made a gift, how important were each of the following in TRIGGERING your decision to donate?

Among the many reasons to give, here are The Bottom Five Reasons, according to Christian music radio listeners, ranked on the percentage who indicated it was a “very important” reason to give.

5. An emergency need at the ministry  27%
4.  Knowing my gift would be matched by someone else 18%
3. Urgency of meeting a goal the broadcaster set for receiving a certain number of gifts before time expires 10%
2. An offer of a free gift from the ministry if I made a donation 2%
1. Knowing the broadcaster might publicly acknowledge my gift 1%

Listeners don’t resonate with being acknowledged on the air after making a gift, with only one percent indicating it’s “very important” to them. Even if there is some false modesty here, the numbers are very low. We recommend that this low response to on-air acknowledgement at least start a conversation about how much and how often you use this technique.

If you participated in the Why Listen survey, now, as you head into the new decade, would be a good time to review the answers on giving and discuss  what listeners say motivates them to give.

This month, we showed what listeners rated as low motivations. Next month, we’ll dive into their top motivations – The Top Five Reasons Listeners Give, coming in February.

A Christmas Treat! We recently asked Christian Music Radio listeners about their favorite Christmas Movies and TV Shows. Here are their Top 5 Responses:

1. (tie) Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

1. (tie) Elf

3. Miracle On 34th Street (some made a point of commenting “the old one”)

4. Home Alone

5. (tie) The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

5. (tie) A Christmas Story

5. (tie) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Hmmm. Didn’t see Rudolph coming! In fact, check out the Top 3 on this list: All could be described as Christmas Innocence. In the case of Rudolph and Miracle, not fast paced and not 21st century looking.

This mirrors what we see elsewhere in our research about Christmas – a yearning for the opposite of our coarse, angry, busy, hurried world. No one dies, but the Wet Bandits come close.

Quiet, hopeful, peaceful, traditional, innocent, goodwill toward women and men.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 NIV

Amen!

During 2018, we conducted the nationwide Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey, asking more than 16,000 listeners to Christian Music Radio why they listen. We gave them 20 different possible reasons and asked them to tell us for each one if it was a Main Reason they listen, A Secondary Reason they listen, or Not A Reason At All. Here are the Top 5 Reasons based on the percentage who said that’s a main reason to listen:

    1. It helps me worship God throughout the day. 91%
    2. I like worshipful Christian music. 91%
    3. I want to be encouraged. 80%
    4. It helps me grow spiritually. 77%
    5. It’s safe for me and my family to listen to. 62%

Fascinating how strongly worship does! Both #1 and #2 answers reflect a strong bent toward worshipping God as a big reason for listening. And, if you combine all the first four answers, it looks like Spiritual Encouragement is a big reason for listening. Christian radio listeners want . . . Christ!
Coming in December . . . more Why Listen? Survey nuggets. This time, the Bottom Five Reasons Christian Music Radio listeners listen.

A part of our work at Finney Media is doing representative sample music testing – online testing and auditorium testing – all over North America. Part of what we research is favorite Christian songs. In the past few years, we’ve seen a number of new, big-testing artists. Here are the Top 5 Testing Songs by artists who are new to Christian music, having their first chart song since the beginning of 2014.

  1. You Say – Lauren Daigle
  2. Old Church Choir – Zach Williams
  3. Even Then – Micah Tyler
  4. Build My Life – Pat Barrett
  5. Trust in You – Lauren Daigle

. . . and the next five.

  1. Chainbreaker – Zach Williams
  2. Eye of the Storm – Ryan Stevenson
  3. Thy Will – Hillary Scott
  4. O’Lord – Lauren Daigle
  5. How Can It Be – Lauren Daigle

We still see strong numbers on Chris Tomlin, Casting Crowns, Jeremy Camp, Mercy Me and others. A note on artists who almost made the list: We Are Messengers and I Am They are artists who were close. That doesn’t mean that every new artist is high testing, nor that every song from all of the new artists above are high testing. Just that with this much churn, there had never been a better time to be regularly testing your music with your listeners.

Coming in November . . . It’s been about a year since the release of the Finney Media Why Listen? Survey. We review the Top Five Reasons Christian Music Radio Listeners listen.

A big part of our work at Finney Media is doing representative sample music testing – online testing and auditorium testing – all over North America. Part of what we research is favorite Christian songs. Here are the Top 5 testing songs sung by women from research done during 2019:

  1. You Say – Lauren Daigle
  2. Trust In You – Lauren Daigle
  3. Holy Spirit – Francesca Battistelli
  4. Who You Say I Am – Hillsong Worship
  5. Thy Will – Hillary Scott
    6. . . . and the next five.
  6. O’Lord – Lauren Daigle
  7. What A Beautiful Name – Hillsong Worship
  8. Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) – Hillsong United
  9. How Can It Be – Lauren Daigle
  10. So Will I (100 Billion X) – Hillsong Worship

The surge in testing in songs sung by women has been big over the last few years, led by Lauren Daigle and Hillsong Worship. In our research nationwide You Say by Lauren Daigleis now not only the #1 testing song sung by a woman, it’s the number #1 testing song, period.

Coming in October – Another surge that we’ve observed lately is artists who weren’t a part of CCM Radio just five years ago. New artists are on the rise. In October, we’ll show you the Top 5 Testing Songs by New Artists.

A big part of our work at Finney Media is doing representative sample music testing – online testing and auditorium testing – all over North America. Part of what we research is favorite Christian books. Here’s how we ask: “Other than the Bible, what are the best Christian books you’ve ever read?” Here are the Top 5 titles from research done during 2019:

  1. The Shack – William P. Young
  2. The Five Love Languages – Gary Chapman
  3. Crazy Love – Francis Chan
  4. The Purpose Driven Life – Rick Warren
  5. (tie) Mere Christianity – CS Lewis
    • (tie) Not A Fan – Kyle Idleman
    • (tie) Jesus Calling – Sarah Young
    • (tie) Left Behind Series – Tim LaHaye
    • (tie) Heaven is for Real – Todd Burpo
    • (tie) Battlefield of the Mind – Joyce Meyer
    • (tie) The Case for Christ – Lee Strobel
 

A few observations about the latest list:

  • It’s helpful to see what springs “top of mind” with listeners. We didn’t give them titles from which to choose.
  • There are only two Christian fiction books on the list – The Shack and Left Behind.
  • 67 years since its publication, Mere Christianity still makes the list. If you’ve never read it, we recommend you do. Or maybe read it again.
  • The newest book on the list, Not A Fan, was published in 2011.
  • And then the biggest question. Why should you care? To better understand your listener. Maybe it’s time to read, or perhaps skim, one of the books here you’ve never read. I need to do this with Kyle Idleman.
 

Coming in September – We’re seeing a surge in high scores with songs sung by women. And, not just Lauren Daigle. Analyzing nationwide testing since the first of the year, we’ll have The Top 5 Testing Songs Sung by Women.

A big part of our work at Finney Media is doing representative sample music testing – online testing and auditorium testing – all over North America. Part of what we research is perceptions of Morning Show Topics – how interesting various topics are to CCM listeners. We ask listeners in our testing to rate 15 different topics on a scale of 1 = Not Interested to 9 = Very Interested. And then we average the scores.

Over the past year, here are the Bottom 5 Topics – #1 is the thing you don’t want to be talking about – lower scores equal lower interest:

The latest on President Trump’s tweets 2.3
The latest Hollywood news 2.7
The latest on a local sports team 3.2
Story about a neighbor helping save a neighbor during a recent natural disaster 6.6
A prayer of thanksgiving from a local pastor 6.7

We’ve bolded the Bottom 3 because they are so much lower in interest than other things we ask about. So much so that we recommend that your Christian morning show – or any other show – minimize these three topics:

• Politics

• Pop Culture

• Sports

Interest among listeners in these three topics is low for CCM listeners. Better to pick a different topic. If you’d like to see ideas on what those high interest topics are, check out the TOP 5 TOPICS from last month’s Finney’s Fast Five.

Coming in August – Other than the Bible, CCM listeners’ Top 5 favorite Christian books they’ve ever read.

A big part of our work at Finney Media is doing representative sample music testing (auditorium testing and online testing) all over North America. Part of what we research are perceptions of Morning Show Topics. One example, how interesting various topics are to CCM listeners. We ask listeners in our testing to rate about 15 different topics on a scale of 1 (Not Interested) to 9 (Very Interested). And, then we average the scores.

Over the past year, here are the Top 5 Topics:

  1. 1. A word of encouragement from a Biblical devotional                         8.4
  2. 2. A Word from Scripture and how it might apply to your life today              8.2
  3. 3. Free, fun activities to do with your family around town this weekend       7.9
  4. 4. Information on a Christian concert in your area                                        7.9
  5. 5. A story from a listener about how God has done a miracle in her life      7.8

Very much about Spiritual Encouragement. And, the numbers on this kind of content are climbing. Seems like as the world continues to become more coarse, angry and vulgar, people are looking for positive answers elsewhere. And, we have the opportunity to be the positive antidote to that anger, including among people who don’t currently give you a pre-set!
Coming in July – The Bottom 5 Morning Show Topics at CCM Radio. If you’re still giving sports scores, you might want to re-think that!

An important part of our work at Finney Media is doing representative sample music testing, auditorium testing and online testing, all over North America. Looking at averages for CCM stations from that testing over the past year, we can see artists who pop to the top, with more great testing songs than others. Sometimes those artists are the ones you anticipate, and sometimes they are a surprise! From the Top 200 testing songs in our latest research, here are the artists who have the most songs.

  1. Chris Tomlin – 16 songs
  2. Casting Crowns – 10 songs
  3. Jeremy Camp – 10 songs
  4. Mercy Me – 9 songs
  5. Kristian Stanfill/Passion – 9 songs

 

No surprise with Chris Tomlin. His 16 songs in the Top 200 is indicative of the widespread passion for his music that we’ve seen for almost 15 years. Chris continues to score great! Casting Crowns and Jeremy Camp with 10 songs each show no signs of letting up. And Mercy Me keeps on rolling with 9 songs in the Top 200. It’s the artists with whom they are tied who are the surprise! Kristian Stanfill/Passion are the first artists to displace Third Day in the Top 5 in over a decade! Their collection of worship anthems has continued to grow and do well!

By the way, Third Day continues to score well, with 8 songs in the Top 200, which places them at #6.

Coming in June:  The Top 5 Morning Show Topics at CCM Radio.  A sneak preview says it’s still very much about spiritual encouragement and family, but there’s more.

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