The 2023 Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey is out! Almost 15,000 respondents from three different formats – Music and Teaching (Hybrid) stations, Teaching stations and programs and All-Music stations. The findings are fascinating.
This month, we begin a series of presentations of the findings from the large nationwide survey, specifically designed for Hybrid and Teaching broadcasters.
In the survey, we presented respondents about twenty different reasons they might listen to their Christian radio station. Here are the Top Five Main Reasons for Hybrid Station respondents. The numbers are the percentage of respondents who indicated that’s a Main Reason they listen:
Top Five Main Reasons to Listen (Hybrid)
| 1. It helps you grow spiritually | 85% |
| 2. It helps you worship God throughout the day | 84% |
| 3. You want to be encouraged | 73% |
| 4. You like worshipful Christian music | 71% |
| 5. It helps you understand the Bible better | 71% |
Now check out the Top Five Main Reasons for All-Teaching Station and Program respondents. Again, the numbers are the percentage of respondents who indicated that’s a Main Reason they listen:
Top Five Main Reasons to Listen (Teaching)
| 1. It helps you grow spiritually | 92% |
| 2. It helps you understand the Bible better | 85% |
| 3. It helps you worship God throughout the day | 81% |
| 4. You want to hear sermons | 77% |
| 5. You want to be encouraged | 71% |
Please note the Main Reasons in bold, the ones over 80 percent of our respondents agreed on.
We believe there are at least two headlines to zero in on. First, your listener is coming to you for Spiritual Growth. The more you deliver on this and less on other things, the more she will keep coming to you.
Secondly, listeners want help from you with worshipping God . . . and they don’t necessarily identify worship with songs. It’s the #3 reason they come to Teaching Stations and Programs, who generally don’t play songs.
Coming next month: From the 2023 Why Listen? Survey, we re-examine the Main Reasons, focusing on the differences between Women and Men, Younger and Older.
