Research Archives - Page 3 of 17

The 2025 Finney Media Why Listen?(R) Survey is out! More than 11,000 respondents from three different formats including, Music stations, Music and Teaching stations, and Teaching stations and programs. The findings are fascinating!

We presented listeners with 16 different reasons they might listen to their Christian radio station. Here are the Top Five Main Reasons for Hybrid (Teaching & Music) station and Teaching station and program respondents. The numbers are the percentage of respondents who indicated that’s a Main Reason they listen:

Hybrid Stations

1. It helps you worship God throughout the day	88%
1. You like the worshipful Christian music	87%
2. It helps you grow spiritually	82%
3. You want to be encouraged	77%
4. You want to help spread Truth	62%

Teaching Stations and Programs

1. It helps you grow spiritually	91%
2. It helps you understand the Bible better	84%
3. It helps you worship God throughout the day	83%
4. You want to hear sermons	77%
5. You want to be encouraged	71%

We’ve highlighted the Main Reasons for each format over 80 percent. Laser beam your vision onto those reasons.

For Hybrid stations, notice the prominence of Worship and Spiritual Growth. You can and should be focused on Jesus and helping your listener take a step in His direction today.

For Teaching stations, notice the prominence of Spiritual Growth, the Bible, and Worship. We know from talking with Teaching listeners that even though these stations don’t play music, they want spoken Word content that is worshipful.

Your mission is to help your listener grow toward Jesus. Turns out your listener wants the same thing!

Coming next month: From the 2025 Why Listen? Survey, we take a look at the lowest Main Reasons . . . things we do that aren’t the reasons she listens.

We completed the 2025 Finney Media Why Listen® Survey recently – a nationwide survey from Christian radio fans – invited from Christian radio station listener databases. Over 11,000 respondents from across the United States responded. We’ll be revealing findings from the survey over the next few months. Let’s start with some great news!

Your listeners LOVE your station!

The Net Promoter Score is a widely used metric for products, services, and brands worldwide. To gauge listener favorability in the Why Listen Survey, we ask:

How likely are you to recommend the station that sent you this survey to family, friends and colleagues? 10 = Very Likely. 1 = Not At All Likely.

Only 9’s and 10’s count toward positives. 1’s through 6’s count as negative. To better illustrate, check out this graphic:

Here’s the great news! CCM Radio scores higher than the most positive brands in America! Check it out:

Amazon	+62
Netflix	+68
Airbnb	+74
Starbucks	+77
CCM Radio Stations	+84

+84 means almost everyone gave us 9’s and 10’s and almost no one gave us 1’s through 6’s.

Much to be thankful for! Our stations are wildly positive with our listeners.

Praise be to God!

…in your Teaching and Hybrid Programming

If you work at a Christian Hybrid station – the kind with long-form Teaching/Talk programs and music – or at an all-Teaching station, read on.

In the recently completed Finney Media Why Listen® Survey, we surveyed earlier this year over 11,000 Christian radio listeners from Teaching, Hybrid and CCM radio formats. The centerpiece of the survey is when we ask these listeners their Main Reasons for listening. We offer them 16 different reasons and ask them to select one of these: “A Main Reason,” “A Secondary Reason,” or “Not A Reason at All” for each of them. There are some that are big Main Reasons in all three formats, an example being “You want to grow spiritually”.

There is one Main Reason that stands out much higher among Hybrid and Teaching listeners: “It Helps You Understand The Bible Better”.

Your mission and your listener’s preference line up very strongly on this point. And it’s an opportunity for differentiation.

Your Hybrid or Teaching station should have a good bit of Scripture on air with help in understanding. It’s your calling. And your opportunity for audience growth!

Over the past three months, we’ve brought you the latest rankings from recent nationwide CCM testing on FEMALE ARTISTS, MALE ARTISTS and GROUPS. This month, we bring it all together into one big ranker: The Top Five CCM Artists plus the next five!

All of this information is gathered from multiple markets across the United States over the past few months. To make this list, an artist has to not only have lots of songs, but specifically lots of high testing songs. If you believe, like we do, that listening to your listeners is crucial to growing audience, enjoy!

Chris Tomlin
Casting Crowns
MercyMe
Jeremy Camp
Third Day
Big Daddy Weave
Phil Wickham
Zach Williams
Lauren Daigle
Elevation Worship

You could split this list into the Top Four – Chris Tomlin, Casting Crowns, MercyMe and Jeremy Camp – and then everyone else, because those four are way ahead of the next six. We believe you should, at a minimum be testing their newer and older songs. You might be surprised at what you see.

Coming in July: The First Results from the 2025 Finney Media Why Listen® Survey! Just completed and ready to help you Grow Audience!

When the world is in chaos and confusion, I turn to (your station) for truth! I really appreciate that (you) continually monitor the radio ministries and make sure they are biblically sound and remove them if they’re not.

I especially treasure that all the broadcasts are largely in keeping with traditional . . . Christianity and that you’ve kept heresies like the prosperity “gospel” . . . off (your station).

These are comments from respondents in the 2025 Finney Media Why Listen® Survey. Imagine you’re riding with or having coffee with these friends and listening to them talk about their passion for your station or program . . . and appreciation for your Biblical “guardrails.”

Christian Radio listeners in all formats, but especially in Teaching and Hybrid formats, are laser-focused on your Biblical message . . . and they trust you to keep it that way.

I remember the Board member who called and asked after the Morning host had resigned if we could ensure that their next Morning Show host would not be “spiritually vacuous.”

Great question.

It’s the kind of question your most interested, most aware, most committed listeners are trusting you to ask.

Here’s our Action Point:

It’s crucial that your ministry leadership be clear about your beliefs and convictions, including on nuanced topics like which versions of the Bible are allowed on the air or how often and when you pray on the air or how much of your “between the songs” content is spiritually-focused.

Your listener doesn’t want “spiritually vacuous.” They do want spiritually truthful, Biblically bold, Jesus-focused content.

Let’s give it to them.

Every year, Finney Media Research tests library songs from CCM artists with listeners across the United States. Listeners decide this ranking, from research we’ve gathered in multiple markets.

We thought it would be fun for you to see the Top Five CCM groups from our recent research. If you’re playing them, terrific! If you’re not, perhaps it’s time for a discussion about playing them.

Top Five CCM Groups

Casting Crowns
Mercy Me
Third Day
Big Daddy Weave
Elevation Worship

On the strength of strong testing on older and newer songs, Casting Crowns and Mercy Me still lead the way by a wide margin over the next three. And Third Day at no. 3? Yes. They are still worth testing and might surprise you if you do (for example, Soul On Fire).

Missed the last two articles in this series? Check them out at the links below:

TOP FIVE FEMALE CCM ARTISTS
TOP MALE CCM ARTISTS

Coming in June: The Top Five CCM Artists – Female, Male and Groups – all in one list. All from nationwide CCM Music Research during the past few months. And we’ll include an additional five (Artists 6 through 10) as a bonus. Be sure you’re playing these artists and see your listenership grow.

When it comes to Christian Radio in the United States, women lead the way.

A majority of listeners to Christian Radio are women. It’s interesting how different the various formats reflect that majority. In our most recent Finney Media Why Listen® Survey:

Contemporary Christian Radio Station Participants	77% Female
Hybrid (Music and Teaching) Station Participants	67% Female
Teaching Stations and Programs Participants	59% Female

We see similar gender disparities in Nielsen. All Christian formats lean female, with Talk/Teaching the format that leans less female and more male.

What’s the Action Point out of this?

Make your radio station or program woman-listener friendly.

If you are a male decision-maker, you are not the target. At least not the primary target.

Unless your content is specifically targeted at men, ask your women listeners what they think about your programming or programs. And listen.

And make what they are asking for a priority.

I’ve been asking for 40 years, and I am consistently surprised.

Be Biblically bold. In a form your listener – women (first) and men – will lean into.

Listeners to the different formats of Christian radio – Teaching, Hybrid and CCM – agree on so many things.

In our most recent Finney Media Why Listen® Survey . . .

They agree that growing spiritually is a Top Reason to listen.
They agree that “help with worshipping God throughout the day” is a Top Reason.
They agree that announcers with an angry, negative, judgmental tone is a major tune out.

Here’s an area where they don’t agree:

It helps you understand the Bible better.

Eighty- five percent (85%) of Teaching Listeners said that’s a Main Reason they listen.
Seventy-one percent (71%) of Hybrid (Teaching + Music) Listeners said that’s a Main Reason.
Thirty-one percent (31%) of CCM Listeners said that’s a Main Reason.

If you’re a Teaching or Hybrid station and you’re looking for a point of differentiation from a CCM station, this is a powerful one!

Go deeper into helping your listener understand the Bible.

And tell them you’re committed to helping them with that.

And let them tell other listeners that’s why they listen!

It’s already your mission. The good news is that it’s also why they’re with you!

Every year, Finney Media Research tests library songs from CCM artists with listeners across the United States. Listeners decide this ranking from research we’ve gathered across North America.

We thought it would be fun to see the Top Five Male Artists from our research recently. If you’re playing them, terrific! If you’re not, perhaps it’s time for a discussion about playing them.

Top Five Male CCM Artists

Chris Tomlin
Jeremy Camp
Phil Wickham
Zach Williams
Micah Tyler

We continue to see strong listener scores on worship songs, with Chris Tomlin still no. 1 by a wide margin, and Phil Wickham is now up to no. 3. To make this list, you must have lots of high-testing songs spanning quite a few years. From Indescribable (which still tests terrific!) to Holy Forever, that’s why you see Chris Tomlin still at no. 1.

See our ranking of the Top Five Female CCM Artists from last month.

Coming in April: The Top Five Groups in nationwide CCM Music Research during the past few months. Be sure you’re playing these artists and grow your listenership.

With the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Convention happening this month, it’s time for some good news.

The mission of almost every one of the ministry organizations we work with could be summed up like this: To help our listeners take a step toward Jesus today.

They differ in their wording, but this is a summation.

Our jobs would be very difficult if this mission did not align with what Christian listeners want. Imagine if listeners were interested in recipes . . . or sports . . . or politics . . . or Steven King novels, but our mission was communicating the Gospel. Because of why they listen, it would be hard to make a connection with such a mismatch.

The good news is that’s not what Christian listeners want or expect. In fact, they indicate they leave if we dive into those things.

They want Jesus. They want the Gospel. They want Truth.

In our most recent Why Listen Survey:

84% indicate “it helps me grow spiritually” as a main reason they listen.
86% indicate “it helps me worship God throughout the day” as a main reason.
86% are very interested in “a word from Scripture and how it might apply to your life today.”

When we ask about spiritual growth, worship or Scripture, the numbers soar.

When we ask about sports, politics or pop culture on Christian radio, they plummet.

Example: Two percent (2%) indicate “the latest news from Hollywood” as a main reason they listen.

As you head to Dallas/Fort Worth for the NRB Convention soon, take heart. If you’re not coming to Dallas/Fort Worth, still take heart.

Your listener’s passion for Him, His Word, His Kingdom is high! Hallelujah!

July 2025: Top Five Reasons Christian Radio Listeners Listen