The Finney Media 2021 Why Listen?® National Survey! Almost 11,000 respondents from three different formats: Music, all-Teaching and Hybrid stations. There’s so much fascinating information on our listeners.
One of our big questions is about tune outs; the things your listener perceives you might do that would cause her to tune away or turn off the radio. The list below is focused on the respondents who came from Hybrid stations and Teaching stations/programs. The percentages are the total of “very likely to turn off” and “somewhat likely to turn off”:
Hybrid
| 1. They have a negative, angry, judgmental tone | 77% |
| 2. They talk about a topic I’m not interested in | 50% |
| 3. They play commercials | 46% |
| 4. An announcer talks too much | 43% |
| 5. They play songs you’re tired of | 33% |
Teaching
| 1. They have a negative, angry, judgmental tone | 68% |
| 2. They talk about a topic I’m not interested in | 54% |
| 3. They play commercials | 48% |
| 4. An announcer talks too much | 46% |
| 5. They play songs you’re tired of | 38% |
How do you keep your listener locked in?
We discussed in this column LAST MONTH how the main listener reasons for listening to Christian radio could be summed up in four words: Spiritual Growth and Encouragement. Our top tune out confirms this. The no. 1 tune out – and it isn’t even close – is a negative, angry judgmental tone.
Your listener is looking for spiritual growth and 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 tune outs are important (“talking too much about something that’s not interesting” comes to mind), but none is as important to your listener 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: Thoughts on the data above about listeners leaving when we talk about topics she’s not interested in and how we stay focused on being Biblically bold while consistently staying on more interesting topics.
*”The Fruits Of The Spirit” – Galatians 5:22
