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March 2021: Top Five Morning Show Topics

HOW WE FIND THE TOP MORNING SHOW TOPICS

What are the top morning show topics to keep your listener tuned in? All year we survey Christian music radio listeners across the United States to discover where their heads and hearts are in relation to what we put on the radio. Questions we ask, aren’t just about songs but what happens between the songs. It’s enlightening what we learn! One area we ask about is topics you might hear on morning shows and how interested a listener might be in those topics.  

Last month we revealed Five of the Lowest Ranking Topics. Now this month, here’s the Top Five Morning Show topics. Focus less on the Lower Five, focus more on the Top Five and you and your listener will have a happier 2021! 

The Top Five Morning Show Topics (rated on a 1-5 scale):

1. A Word from Scripture and how it might apply to your life today 4.6
2. A word of encouragement from a Biblical devotional 4.5
3. A story from a listener about how God has done a miracle in her life 4.4
4. Three ways to improve your marriage or relationships today 4.3
5. Information on a Christian concert in your area   4.1
Free, fun activities to do with your family around town this weekend  4.1
A prayer of thanksgiving from a local pastor 4.1
Story about a neighbor helping save a neighbor during a natural disaster  4.1

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Not only is the No. 1 answer the No. 1 answer this year. It’s the No. 1 answer every year.  

Your Christian music radio listener would like for you to include Scripture and how it might apply to her life. She’s asking you to tell her the Truth.  You just need to figure out how to bring it in a way that meets her where she is today. She’s busy, distracted, possibly hurting, and hoping you’ll include words of encouragement.   

In fact, the Top Four are all variations on the theme of spiritual encouragement/spiritual growth. 

If you pair this with the rejection of politics/sports/pop culture in last month’s survey (link), it’s pretty clear that we have the opportunity to touch more hearts more deeply by leaning our stations more in a spiritual encouragement direction.  

And never an opportunity time like now.  

Each year, all year, we survey Christian music radio listeners across the United States to discover where their heads and hearts are in relation to what we put on the radio. A lot of what we ask about isn’t about the songs but what happens between the songs. And, it’s enlightening what we learn. 

We ask about topics you might hear on morning shows and how interested a listener might be in those topics.  

This month we’ll reveal the lowest ranked morning show topics. Next month, the ones that ranked at the top of the list. We encourage you to focus less on the Lowest Five and more on the Top Five and have a happier 2021! 

Five of the Lowest Ranked Morning Show Topics

Here are Five of the Lowest Ranked Morning Show Topics (rated on a 1-5 scale):

The latest update on the weather 4.0
The latest on COVID 3.4
Sports Updates 2.1
Hollywood Updates 2.0
The latest on the President’s tweets 1.9

A Look Closer

Let’s discuss the bottom three first. Over and over, we see Christian music radio listeners tell us they neither want nor expect 1. Politics, 2. Pop culture/Hollywood, or 3. Sports from their Christian music radio station. That was echoed again this year. All of this research was conducted prior to President Trump’s Twitter account being deactivated. The numbers on these three areas consistently show up so much lower than any other areas. It’s worth considering simply leaving them completely out of the content mix unless something extraordinary happened in your town. 

As to no.4, the latest on COVID, we were asking about it when it was topic no.1 in the news on a daily basis. At 3.4, that’s just lukewarm among our listeners. Almost as if they are saying, “it’s reality, but please only if there’s some good news”.  

And, then there’s the weather. It’s not that the weather ranking at 4.0 is a terrible score. 4.0 out of 5 is pretty good. But, we’ve watched the weather go from the top of the list over the years to now the lower part of the middle. The weather matters, but it appears most people know they can check their phones to get it now. 

Next month we’ll focus on the top five, where you’ll want to focus your energy and creativity. 

Want to compare this year’s results with what we found two years ago? Check out 2019’S FIVE LOWEST RANKING MORNING SHOW TOPICS.

The conversation with Christian radio listeners about their preferences is one of importance. We learn so much by asking!  Late in 2020 we asked, “Other than the Bible, what is the best Christian book you’ve ever read?” Here are the Top Five Favorite Books among CCM Listeners:

1. The Purpose Driven Life (2002)  Rick Warren (AMAZON)
2. Left Behind Series (1995) Tim LaHaye
2. Redeeming Love (2005) Francine Rivers
2. The Case for Christ (1998) Lee Strobel
2. The Shack (2007)  William P. Young

Our no. 1, The Purpose Driven Life, was a runaway winner with twice the number of votes over our no. 2 books.  And, yes, you’re seeing correctly. There were four titles that were tied for second place. Is it something about this lockdown year that has made Rick Warren’s classic even bigger than before? 

Consider the variety among the books tied at no. 2. Three works of fiction but each with very different and powerful themes. And, in the middle, Lee Strobel’s amazing work of investigative journalism that led him to faith. 

In case you’re curious, here are the books that just missed the Top Five list, all worthy titles that scored well, just not quite well enough to make the top titles:.  

  • Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul by Jack Canfield 
  • The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman 
  • Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul by John Eldredge, Stasi Eldredge 
  • Crazy Love Francis Chan by Danae Yankoski 
  • Heaven Iis for Real by Lynn Vincent 
  • Knowing God by J.I. Packer 
  • The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian 

 Want more? Take a look back at how listeners ranked their FAVORITE BOOKS last year.

 

 

It’s been a year. So, we thought it would be fun to celebrate a very long 2020 with a fun Finney’s Fast Five for Christmas.  Here are your listeners’ Top Five Christmas movies. As a reminder, we survey across the United States in representative sample music testing.  

Rank Title
1. Elf
2. (tie) Miracle on 34th Street
2. (tie) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 
4. (tie) How the Grinch Stole Christmas 
4. (tie) It’s a Wonderful Life 

Buddy the Elf has been steadily moving up the past few times we’ve done our survey and he finally claims the top spot!  

Three themes jump out at us as we look at the Top Five Movies:  

  1. Innocence. Buddy in Elf. The little girl Susan and Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street. All the characters in Rudolph. The Whos in The Grinch. So much Christmas lovable innocence.  
  2. Tradition/Familiarity. These are movies your listeners want to see again and again. Kind of like how they want to hear their most popular CCM songs. And, there are familiar, quotable lines. The most recent release in the top five is 17 years old. Elf came out in 2003 and took 17 years to climb its ways to our top spot.    
  3. Love. Each of our top five has love as a strong theme. Buddy helping teach a cynical New York to love. Kris Kringle melting a broken mom’s heart with his love on 34th Street. George Bailey discovering that he was in fact the richest man in town because of all his loving friends. The Grinch? Well in Whoville they say that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day. And, then the true meaning of Christmas came through and the Grinch found the strength of ten Grinches plus two! 

Thought you might like to see the next five movies, too. Check out no. 8 – not just one movie! 

Rank Title
6. (tie) A Christmas Story 
6. (tie) Home Alone 
8. Hallmark Christmas Movies 
9. (tie) Frosty the Snowman 
9. (tie) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation 

Wishing you a blessed Christmas season.  Bet you’ll watch a few of these movies, too. 

Want to check out more of our research? Visit our RESEARCH PAGE for our past articles.

The Top Five Tune outs for CCM Listeners 

The Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey 2018 showed perceptions from almost 27,000 Christian radio listeners across the United States in four different formats – Music Stations, Music and Teaching Stations, all-Teaching Stations, and Teaching Programs. There’s an important takeaway for right now – fall 2020.  

One of the questions we asked was about tune outs – things your listener perceives you might do that would cause her to tune away or turn off the radio. The list of tune outs 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%

Keep in mind, this survey was over two years ago. Before the pandemic and lockdown. Before this year’s racial tensions. And, before the contentious presidential campaign. We suspect that for Christian radio a negative, angry, judgmental tone as a tune out has not declined since 2018. Here’s what we had to say on all of this back in 2018, but it bears repeating.  

The main reasons we uncovered in the Why Listen? Survey for listening to Christian music radio could be summed up in two words – spiritual encouragement. Our top tune out confirms this. The No. #1 tune out – and it isn’t even close – is a negative, angry judgmental tone.  

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*.” 

With the time we’re in right now, has there ever been a better time for you to make sure your stations sounds like that? Truly different from what your listener hears and sees elsewhere.     

Coming in December  – Christian Music Radio Listeners’ Top Five Favorite Christmas Movies 

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

 

 

 

The Top Five Testing CCM Artists

(by Number of Top Testing Songs)

Finney Media does music research across North America each year on lots of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) songs. From that research, we know there are hundreds of songs that CCM radio listeners recognize and love. We’ve poured over the data from the past year to come up with the Top Five Testing CCM Artists based on the number of songs each artist has with scores of 3.8 or higher on a five-point scale average nationwide.

Here’s how they rank:

1. Chris Tomlin 19 titles
2. Casting Crowns 15 titles
3. Mercy Me 14 titles
4. Third Day 12 titles
5. Jeremy Camp 11 titles

And, here are the next five:

6. Lauren Daigle 8 titles
7. Toby Mac 7 titles
8. Big Daddy Weave 6 titles*
8. Crowder/David Crowder Band 6 titles*
8. For King & Country 6 titles*
8. Need To Breathe 6 titles*
8. Aaron Shust 6 titles*
8. Matthew West 6 titles*

So many organizations – political, business, sports, and media – right now are not focused. While they are unfocused . . . maybe this is the right time for you to focus even more. On your listener. And, the songs she knows and loves. If we can help, visit our CONTACT US page.

*Yes, that is a six-way tie you’re seeing here for the number eight spot.

The Top Five Newer Artists (Not Named Lauren Daigle) Who Have The Most Songs In The Top 200

We do music research across North America each year on hundreds of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) songs. If you read last month’s Finney’s Fast Five (READ IT HERE), you know that there has been a surge in testing on songs sung by women, particularly those sung by Lauren Daigle.  In fact, since 2014, Lauren has led a wave of high testing CCM music by newer artists.

Scanning through our Top 200 Testing Songs from the past year, here are the artists who, like Lauren Daigle, have debuted since 2014 and have the most songs in our Top 200. Lauren has eight titles (!!!) in the Top 200. Check out the ones who come in right behind her:

1 Zach Williams 5 titles
2 Elevation Worship 3 titles
2 Micah Tyler 3 titles
2 Ryan Stevenson 3 titles
5 Pat Barrett 2 titles
5 Hillsong Worship 2 titles
5 We Are Messengers 2 titles
5 Tauren Wells 2 titles

All of this brings up a crucial point about listener focus: much has changed this year. This fall is a great time to make sure you’re focused – refocused – on your listener. Make sure you’re playing the songs your listener loves from the artists she loves. Including these artists.

 

 

 

 

We do music research each year on hundreds of songs in markets across North America…and this past year, we saw another surge in high test scores for Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) songs sung by women. In July, we reviewed the Top Five Testing CCM Songs Sung by Men. Read it HERE.

In the finale of our two-part Finney’s Fast Five series, we have for August the Top Five Testing CCM Songs Sung by Women:

1. Lauren Daigle You Say 2018
2. Lauren Daigle O’ Lord 2017
3. Lauren Daigle How Can It Be 2014
4. Kari Jobe Revelation Song 2009
5. Lauren Daigle Rescue 2018

…and the next five:

6. Lauren Daigle Trust In You 2016
7. Lauren Daigle Look Up Child 2018
8. Hillary Scott Thy Will 2016
9. Helser, Johnathan & Melissa Raise A Hallelujah 2019*
10. Hillsong Worship Who You Say I Am 2018

Led by Lauren Daigle, who burst into Christian music in the past six years, songs sung by women have made a big comeback in music testing. In fact, over the past year, our top testing song is You Say by Lauren Daigle. The Kari Jobe version of Revelation Song tests better these days than the version by Phillips, Craig & Dean. In fact, in general, worship songs sung by women are scoring great.

*Since this is a duet, we felt it deserved inclusion on both lists.

 

 

 

We do music research each year on hundreds of songs in markets across North America…and, this past year we saw another surge in high test scores for Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) songs sung by women. So, in a two-part Finney’s Fast Five, we have for July the Top Five Testing CCM Songs Sung by Men. We’ll follow that in August with the Top Five Testing CCM Songs Sung by Women.

1. Mercy Me I Can Only Imagine 2001
2. Cory Asbury Reckless Love 2018
3. Phil Wickham This Is Amazing Grace 2013
4. Jeremy Camp Dead Man Walking 2019
5. For King & Country God Only Knows 2018

and the next five…

6. Chris Tomlin Whom Shall I Fear 2012
7. Aaron Shust My Savior My God 2005
8. Johnathan & Melissa Helser Raise A Hallelujah 2019*
9. Micah Tyler Even Then 2018
10. Crowder Red Letters 2018

To quote a friend on I Can Only Imagine, “that song’s so old, it can vote!” We recommend you double-check that you’re still giving spins to these titles, including the 15-year-old Aaron Shust title that has never stopped testing great. But, the most marked things about this latest research is that six of the ten titles have been released since 2018 and there are no repeat artists in the Top 10.

*Since this is a duet, we felt it deserved inclusion on both lists.

We are in one of the strangest times of our lives. We’ve rarely been part of a national experience where everyone has had their lives changed simultaneously for an extended period of time. In our recent blog Recommendations for Christian Radio Emerging from Lockdown, we pointed out three significant things to say to listeners during this extraordinary period. You can reread that blog HERE.

What are the values to emphasize behind those phrases of familiarity, safety and comfort? We believe we serve her best when we understand what’s on her mind and talk about those things with values consistent with what she expects from us.

This month’s Finney’s Fast Five is based on research of Christian radio listeners nationwide with Scriptural foundation. Here’s our take on The Top Five Values Your Listener Wants from You Now:

  1. Empathy. The fear and worry are real. The sickness is real. The job losses and their financial and emotional challenges are real. The loneliness is real. The hurdles of homeschooling, childcare and no summer camp are real. We’re at our best when we’re the friend who lives in that place with her. According to Dr. Brene Brown, empathy sounds like “Hey, I know what it’s like here . . . and you’re not alone.”
  2. Affirmation. “Mom, you’re doing a great job” is always a good idea. It just sounds a little different right now. From our Talent Coach Beth Bacall: Right now, it’s affirmation for doing the best she can with what she has.
  3. Other Focus. Might be you’re not scared of getting sick. Why wear a face mask? Here’s why: To honor others. It’s the right thing to do. Loving others well by thinking of others first. It’s always part of our DNA but your listener would love to hear it more.
  4. Godly Perspective/Reassurance. About what’s happening in this world. According to our Talent Coach Gary Morland, this sounds like a calm confidence that God has this. Check this out: “I am one in whom Christ delights and dwells. I live in the strong and unshakeable kingdom of God. The kingdom is not in trouble and neither am I.”*
  5. Eternal Perspective. Focusing more on our eternal home. One of the top reasons your listener listens to you is for help in worshipping God throughout the day.** That has not changed. She is coming to you to get away from the fear, worry, negativity and anger and to focus more on thanking and praising the God of the universe.

Today, we have more opportunity than ever through our radio, video and digital channels to be Jesus for our listener. Let’s make this a special time of ministry!

*James Bryan Smith

** Finney Media Why Listen? Survey 2018

 

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