The Finney Media 2023 Why Listen?® Survey surveyed almost 15,000 respondents from three different formats: Music stations, Music and Teaching stations, and all-Teaching stations and programs. It uncovered fascinating information on our listeners!
One of our big questions is about tuneouts:,things your listener perceives you might do that would cause her to turn off the radio. The list 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”.
Top Five Reasons CCM Listeners Leave
| 1. They have a negative, angry, judgmental tone | 84% |
| 2. They play songs you don’t like | 44% |
| 3. An announcer talks too much | 42% |
| 4. They play commercials | 40% |
| 5. They talk about a topic you’re not interested in | 40% |
We discussed in this column the last couple months (see link below) 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 no.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*.”
The other tuneouts are important 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 November: The Top Five Marital Statuses of your listeners. Sneak peek: many are not currently married, and it’s important for us to talk to them in a way that doesn’t sound condescending/disrespectful.
*”The Fruits Of The Spirit” – Galatians 5:22
