Country Radio Listeners: More Tech Savvy Than Ever

A & O recently released our annual study of country radio listeners and if you were at our Nashville client seminar, you know that the 2010 study surveyed over 8,800 country listeners--66% of them aged 25-54 and 89.1% P1's (heavy users of Country).

Thanks to Daniel Anstandig for not only speaking to our meetings, but for the coverage in his Radio-Info column this week. "Most noteworthy to country radio operators this year is the significant uptrend of listeners who consider themselves "savvy" when it comes to new media."

>> 25% of country radio listeners in this study reported that they consider themselves "savvy when it comes to things like using e-mail, texting, downloading podcasts, and posting videos online." That's up from 16.9% in 2009.

>> Only 26.8% of country radio listeners in this study consider themselves "below average" on the above-mentioned new media--which is down significantly from 47.4% of country radio listeners in 2008 and 33.8% in 2009.

This year may be a breakthrough year for country radio online. These numbers show opportunity for any savvy country radio station to move into the digital world--although it would appear that any station just getting serious now about new media would be following their listeners to the net rather than leading them there.

At the same time, country programmed internet-radio stations are gaining listeners.

>> More country music listeners are using internet-radio than ever before--with the Albright & O'Malley study showing that a staggering 56.8% of country radio listeners are using Internet-radio at least once per week. Remember that this study is mostly P1's, and it's clear that internet-radio could significantly steal TSL from a local country station if programmed and marketed competitively.

>> The good news for country radio stations in this study: listeners are spending a big chunk of their internet-radio time with LOCAL COUNTRY RADIO STATIONS. This year, 28.8% of country radio listeners are spending over three hours per week listening to a local country radio station online.

>> Furthermore, the study showed that 48% of country radio listeners believe it is SOMEWHAT or VERY IMPORTANT that their favorite country radio station is available to listen online.

>> Most (76.8%) of listeners of country internet-radio streams are listening through their computer/notebook. 5.6% of the respondents said that they regularly listen on their smartphone, and 9.5% on iPhones/iPod/MP3.

>> Internet-Radio causes country radio listeners to spend MORE time with their favorite radio station too. One out of four respondents said that they listen MORE to their local country station because of their internet-radio stream.

>> 92.4% of country radio listeners have visited a radio station's website in the past six months. Their top three wants: Access to concert tickets before they go on sale, country music news, and discount coupons. Is your country radio station offering those three?