as seen in the 2023 Finney Media Why Listen® Survey
The 2023 Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey included almost 15,000 respondents from three different formats: Music/Teaching (Hybrid) stations, All-Teaching stations and Programs, and all-Music stations (CCM).
One of the challenges we face and opportunities we have, unlike a church which is focused on one particular denomination, is that our radio stations and programs are multi-denominational. They are heard by people from many denominations. In our nationwide survey, we asked about denominational affiliation. Among respondents from Hybrid and Teaching stations, here are the Top Five Denominations:
Top Five Denominations (Hybrid Listeners)
| 1. Non-denominational/Bible/Community | 34% |
| 2. Baptist | 30% |
| 3. Pentecostal/Charismatic | 8% |
| 4. Reformed | 5% |
| 5. Presbyterian | 5% |
Top Five Denominations (Teaching Listeners)
| 1. Baptist | 46% |
| 2. Non-denominational/Bible/Community | 27% |
| 3. Pentecostal/Charismatic | 7% |
| 4. Lutheran | 4% |
| 5. Methodist | 4% |
The first two denominations on both rankers comprise about 2/3rd of all the respondents. The other 1/3rd are led by Pentecostals. We can see that many denominations have different ways of worship and different words they use in their worship and ways they communicate with each other.
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: Recently a friend from our Bible Study group pulled me aside after class. She grew up Catholic and is now Baptist. She leads a Bible Study Fellowship class. She reads her Bible and pays attention. She was curious about a word that had come up in our group that morning that she didn’t know the meaning of, “liturgy.” I know. I was surprised too. She grew up Catholic but didn’t know the meaning.
But I shouldn’t be surprised, because we do research with believers who listen to Christian radio. Many don’t know the meaning of a lot of words/phrases/concepts, even things you would expect that they know.
