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April 2019: Top Five Reasons Listeners Listen

The Top 5 Reasons Christian Radio Listeners Listen

In 2018, Finney Media performed the Why Listen? Survey — a nationwide perceptual study of 26,800 Christian radio respondents. We were looking to discover why these listeners choose to listen to us. Since the survey was taken by respondents who were invited either on-air or via email or social media by Christian radio stations and programs which are all-Music, all-Teaching or a combination of the two, the respondents could be described as “superfans”. These are likely the listeners most aware, most churched and most passionate about what we air. From the entire survey, all 26,800 respondents from all formats, here are the Top 5 Reasons they listen:

  1. It helps me worship God throughout the day 87%
  2. It helps me grow spiritually 81%
  3. I like the worshipful Christian music 77%
  4. I want to be encouraged 76%
  5. It’s safe for me and my family to listen to 57%

You could summarize the Top 4 reasons into two words: Spiritual Encouragement. And if you’re looking for ways for your radio station, program or podcast to reach more hearts, more deeply, especially among those most likely to give us their first pre-set, doing more minutes that are spiritual encouragement will likely help.

Coming in May – More music research numbers . . . among the Top 200 songs, we’ll have the Top 5 Artists, including how many songs they have in the Top 200.

Top Five Songs from Each of the Last 10 Years

Finney Media does music research every year on hundreds of songs in multiple markets across North America . . . and every year, the numbers on which songs from the past are the most popular with Christian Music Radio listeners changes. From our research during the past year, here are the Top 5 Testing Songs released during each of the past 10 years.

2018                                                                 

  1. Cory Asbury/Reckless Love                          
  2. Chris Tomlin/Resurrection Power
  3. Mercy Me/Grace Got You
  4. Austin French/Freedom Hymn
  5. Hillsong United/So Will I (100 Billion X)
 2017

  1. Lauren Daigle/O’Lord
  2. Passion/Glorious Day
  3. Tenth Avenue North/Control
  4. Crowder/All My Hope
  5. Micah Tyler/Different
2016                                                                 

  1. Elevation Worship/O Come To The Altar   
  2. Chris Tomlin/Good Good Father
  3. Zach Williams/Old Church Choir
  4. Aaron Shust/Ever Be
  5. We Are Messengers/Magnify
 2015

  1. Zealand Worship/Good Good Father
  2. Bethel Music/No Longer SlavesKristian Stanfill/Even So Come
  3. Kristian Stanfill/Even So Come
  4. One Sonic Society/Great Are You Lord
  5. Big Daddy Weave/My Story
2014                                                                 

  1. Lincoln Brewster/There Is Power                
  2. Francesca Battistelli/Holy Spirit
  3. Owl City w/Britt Nicole/You’re Not Alone
  4. Lauren Daigle/How Can It Be
  5. Mercy Me/Greater
 2013

  1. Matt Maher/Lord, I Need You
  2. Phil Wickham/This Is Amazing Grace
  3. Kristian Stanfill/In Christ Alone
  4. Newsboys/We Believe
  5. Hillsong United/Oceans (Where Feet May Fall)
2012                                                                 

  1. Chris Tomlin/Whom Shall I Fear                 
  2. Matt Redman/10,000 Reasons
  3. Big Daddy Weave/Redeemed
  4. Phillips, Craig & Dean/Great I Am
  5. Casting Crowns/Already There
 2011

  1. Matthew West/Strong Enough
  2. Chris Tomlin/I Lift My Hands
  3. Aaron Shust/Risen Today
  4. Third Day/Trust In Jesus
  5. Afters/Lift Me Up
2010                                                                 

  1. Chris Tomlin/Our God                                
  2. Matt Maher/Hold Us Together
  3. Newworldson/There Is A Way
  4. Building 429/Where I Belong
  5. Chris Tomlin/I Will Follow
 2009

  1. Phillips, Craig & Dean/Revelation Song
  2. Need to breathe/Lay ‘Em Down
  3. David Crowder Band/How He Loves
  4. Remedy Drive/All Along
  5. Chris & Conrad/Lead Me To The Cross

Check out which titles are on this list that you may have taken out over the years . . . and consider if they should be a part of your station now.

Coming in April – More music research numbers . . . among the Top 200 songs, we’ll have the Top 5 Artists, including how many songs they have in the Top 200.

*Sourced from multiple Finney Media research projects

Ranking The 5 Marital Statuses Among CCM Listeners in the Why Listen Survey 2018

The Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey 2018 surveyed 26,800 respondents – over 3 million data points – from four different formats – Music stations, Music/Teaching stations, All-Teaching stations, and Teaching programs.

There’s much discussion about focusing our radio stations and programs on people beyond the nuclear family. In 2019, there are way more types of folks listening than moms who married for the first time. Here are the Top Five Marital Statuses ranked in the recent nationwide survey.

  1. Married First Time 50%
  2. Re-married 21%
  3. Divorced 13%
  4. Single/Never Married 10%
  5. Widowed 5%

Here’s a way to think about this: If you’re talking to your listener as if she is married for the first time, you’re talking to only half of your listeners. And, if you assume she is married – for the first time or more often –you’re still talking to only about 7 in 10.

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.

Coming in March – We’ve compiled the research numbers for 2018. We’ll have the Top Five Songs from each of the last ten years, based on the latest listener feedback.

The Top 5 Denominations Among CCM Listeners in the Why Listen Survey 2018

The Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey 2018 surveyed 26,800 respondents with over three million data points from four different formats: Music stations, Music/Teaching stations, All-Teaching stations, and Teaching programs.

One of the challenges and opportunities we face is that, unlike a church which is focused on one particular denomination, our radio stations are multi-denominational. They are heard by people from many denominations. In our nationwide survey, we asked about denomination affiliation. Among respondents from CCM stations, here are the Top Five Denominations:

  1. Non-denominational/Bible/Community 31%
  2. Baptist 23%
  3. Pentecostal/Charismatic   9%
  4. Methodist   8%
  5. Lutheran   7%

And, these five comprise about 80 percent.The other 20 percent are led by Catholic listeners at six percent. This is an example of many denominations with different ways of worship and different words used in worship and communication.

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. We heard this on the radio: A prominent national Christian broadcaster on his program said, “we need to exhort fellow believers.” I asked friends from a Christian station to tell me the meaning of the word exhort.One thought it meant to exercise. A friend pointed out that that is 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, actually 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”, he 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, understands. Clarity and understanding of the Truth is at stake.

Coming in January:The Top Five Marital Statuses represented among CCM respondents to the Why Listen? 2018 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 Top 5 Reasons CCM Listeners Give To Your Station

The Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey 2018. 26,800 respondents – over 3 million data points – from four different formats – Music stations, Music/Teaching stations, All-Teaching stations, and Teaching programs.

We asked them about whether or not they give to the ministry that sent them the survey. And to those who give, we asked about what moved them to make a call, go online or write a check to make a gift. The Top 5 responses from CCM listeners are below. They are the percentage who said that reason is “very important” to their decision . . . a “trigger” for their move from listening to giving.

  1. I believe in the mission and vision of the ministry 85%
  2. An inner feeling God wanted me to give 80%
  3. Knowing God tells us to support those who ministry to us 64%
  4. A story about someone’s life that was changed through the ministry 30%
  5. An emergency need at the ministry 27%

The #1 response – “I believe in the mission and vision of the ministry”. So crucial that you communicate clearly and often your mission and vision. Both on air and off air. Your listener is passionate about listening, passionate about helping. Making sure that theme is at the center of your communication is crucial.

Coming in January – The Top 5 Denominations Represented among CCM respondents to the Why Listen? 2018 Survey. If you believe making your message multi-denominationally accessible is crucial, get ready to tackle how to talk to all five in ways all of those listeners can understand.

The Top 5 On-Air Topics for CCM Listeners

 

The Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey 2018 is out! 26,800 respondents with over 3 million data points from four different formats, Music stations, Music/Teaching stations, All-Teaching stations, and Teaching programs.

We asked about topics you might talk about on your stations and how interested your listener is in those topics. The list below is focused on just the 16,000+ respondents who came from Music stations. These are the percentages who indicated they are “very interested”.

 

 

A word from Scripture and how it might apply to your life today                            86%
Bible studies on topics such as prophecy, spiritual gifts, marriage, etc.                   57%
Three ways to improve your marriage or other relationships                                       49%
Stories about how people helped a neighbor after a tragedy                                        44%
A prayer of thanksgiving from a local pastor                                                                           40%
Information on a local Christian concert                                                                                   40%

 

SPIRITUAL ENCOURAGEMENT!

In whatever form or forum we ask, our Christian radio listener is attracted to spiritual encouragement. Check out how far ahead of every other answer “A Word from Scripture and how it might apply to your life today” shows up.

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

What topics score lowest?

Second to last is “the latest decisions of politicians” at 18% “very interested”. Dead last – run quickly away from this – is “the latest news from Hollywood” at 1% “very interested”.

 

Coming in December: The Top 5 Reasons Christian Radio Listeners Give To Your Station. The Why Listen? Survey includes a high number of donors, so our questions focus on the folks who support you now.

 

 

The Top 5 Reasons Christian Radio Listeners Listen . . . and how Music Station Listeners are different from Music/Teaching Stations and All-Teaching Stations

In the Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey 2018 there were 26,800 respondents from four different formats – Music stations, Music/Teaching stations, all-Teaching stations, and Teaching programs.

The centerpiece of the survey is the reasons Christian radio listeners listen. It turns out that listeners who came from CCM stations listen, in some cases, for reasons similar to listeners to Music/Teaching stations and all-Teaching stations . . . and then there are a few reasons that are different. Here are the percentages, by format, of respondents who said that’s a Main Reason they listen.

 

Music Station Respondents

1) It helps me worship God throughout the day    91%

1) I like the 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%

 

Music/Teaching Station Respondents
1) It helps me grow spiritually    86%

2) It helps me worship God throughout the day    83%

3) It helps me understand the Bible better    74%

4) I want to be encouraged    70%

5) I like the worshipful Christian music    63%

 

All-Teaching Station Respondents
1) It helps me grow spiritually    89%

2) It helps me worship God throughout the day    81%

3) It helps me understand the Bible better    80%

4) I want to help spread Truth    69%

5) I want to be encouraged    67%

 

The answers in bold are the ones not common to all three formats. The ones not in bold made the Top 5 Main Reasons for each of the formats. A few observations:

  • It makes sense that “I like the worshipful Christian music” would not show up as a top Main Reason for Teaching Station respondents since those stations don’t play any music.
  • Music Station listeners were the only ones who scored “It’s safe for me and my family to listen to” in the Top 5. And even among Music listeners, it’s a distant fifth. Some of that is likely because the percentage of respondents with children under 18 in the home continues to drop. It’s down from 38% in the Why Listen? 2016 Survey to 32% in the 2018 Survey.
  • More Bible-focused and evangelism reasons showed up higher for the stations that lean toward Teaching programs – “It helps me understand the Bible better” and “I want to help spread Truth” showing up much more strongly than those reasons did with music listeners.

 

We believe that the biggest headline is this. When you look at the Main Reasons that are common to all three formats – “It helps me worship God throughout the day”, “It helps me grow spiritually” and “I want to be encouraged” – it is as if our listener is saying “I’m coming to you for SPIRITUAL ENCOURAGEMENT”.

Coming in November – The Top 5 Most Interesting On Air Topics. There is one that is much bigger than all the others. We’ll have it for you in November!

 

 

 

The Top 5 Tuneouts for CCM Listeners

The Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey 2018 is out with results from 26,800 respondents in four different formats – Music stations, Music and Teaching stations, all-Teaching stations, and Teaching programs.

One of the questions asked was about tuneouts – things your listener perceives you might do that would cause her to tune away or turn off the radio. The list of tuneouts below is focused on just the respondents who came from Music stations. The percentages are the total of “very likely to turn off” and “somewhat likely to turn off”.

1) They have a negative, angry, judgmental tone      85%

2) Announcer talks too much                                                   50%

3) Plays songs you don’t like                                                     48%

4) They talk about a topic I’m not interested in             44%

5) They play commercials                                                           42%

We discussed in this column last month (link here) how the main listener reasons for listening to Christian radio could be summed up in two words – spiritual encouragement. Our top tuneout confirms this. The #1 tuneout – and it isn’t even close – is a negative, angry judgmental tone.

Your listener is looking for spiritual 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*.”

Other tuneouts are important (“talking too much about something that’s not interesting” comes to mind), but none quite as important 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 – Another look at the Top 5 Main Reasons Christian Radio listeners listen. This time, we review the Main Reasons in the whole survey – all formats – and discover how listeners to Music Stations are similar to – and different from – listeners to Teaching stations and programs.

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

 

 

 

The Top 5 Reasons CCM Listeners Listen . . . plus the next five

The Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey 2018 is out! 26,800 respondents from four different formats – Music stations, Music and Teaching stations, Teaching stations, and Teaching programs. The findings are fascinating. And many. This month’s Finney’s Fast Five is the first in a series of findings we’ll be presenting. We asked about twenty different reasons a listener might listen to the Christian radio station or program that sent the survey. Here are the Top 5 for Music Station respondents . . . plus the next five. The numbers are the percentage of respondents who indicated that’s a Main Reason they listen.

1) It helps me worship God throughout the day. 91%

2) I like the 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%

 

6) I want to get away from negativity on other stations. 61%

7) The presentation is calming. 50%

8) I want to help spread Truth. 49%

9) I feel the speakers care when they pray on-air for someone in need. 43%

10) The on-air hosts are like family members I want to connect with everyday. 40%

 

The #1 reason – It helps me worship God throughout the day – is a reason we didn’t ask in our 2016 survey. Thanks to our friends at Advocace – Paul Martin and Dr. Paul Virts – for recommending we ask it. And what a wow! It appears that our biggest fans – the folks who took the 20 minutes or so to complete the survey – would like an overtly spiritual focus to our stations.

Laser beam your vision onto the first four reasons. Those are the ones over 75% indicating it’s a main reason they listen. You could boil those four reasons down to two words – spiritual encouragement.

 

Coming in September – From the Why Listen? 2018 Survey – The Top 5 Tuneouts.

 

The Top 5 Songs Sung By Women . . . plus the Next Five!

We asked Contemporary Christian Music Radio listeners in multiple markets across the North America during the past few months about their favorite Christian songs. We’ve seen a resurgence in the past couple years of songs sung by women. Here are the Top 5 Titles sung by women . . . and the next five.

 

1) Francesca Battistelli/Holy Spirit

2) Hillsong United/Oceans

3) Lauren Daigle/Trust In You

4) Hillary Scott/Thy Will

5) Lauren Daigle/First

 

6) Lauren Daigle/How Can It Be

7) Natalie Grant/King Of The World

8) Mandisa/Only The World

9) Selah/Bless The Broken Road

10) Mary Mary/Shackles

 

Francesca Battistelli’s Holy Spirit continues to test with high passion and low burn four years after its release!

And look at how Lauren Daigle leaped into the Top 6 with all three of her first releases!

Coming in August to Finney’s Fast Five, we release our first data from the Finney Media Why Listen?(R) 2018 Survey. With 28,600 participants, over 70 reports representing hundreds of stations and programs, we’re excited to begin sharing the groundbreaking revelations from the study.

 

 

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