What ELSE Do Listeners Want From You?

How do you grow your audience in an era when digital media distractions keep chipping away at attention? What else do listeners really want?

In the benchmark survey we conducted for Christian Music Broadcasters early this year, we asked hundreds of Christian Music Listeners this question:

Which of the following services from a Christian music radio station would you be interested in participating in?

Pretty straight forward, right?

We also asked YOU, the programmers and music people of Christian Radio, what YOU thought fans of our music might say.

Surprisingly, the music people and the fans were not at all on the same page.

Here's what the Christian Radio programmers predicted listeners would say:

So CMB members believed that Christian Music fans would wish for online platforms to answer questions and help them grow in their faith, a supportive online community to share prayer requests and receive prayers, an online Q&A platform, and faith-encouraging podcasts.

Nothing else above 60% "Very Interested."

And here's what Christian Music fans actually said they wanted from a Christian music radio station, using the same list of items:

Oops!

It appears that actual fans of Christian music (whether or not they listen to the radio for it) want a much richer of variety of services from Christian music stations than we think.

They want everything on this list at or above 60% "Very Interested," including a lot of things that Christian Radio programmers were sure would be of little or no value at all.

Now I know what you might be saying...But we're a music radio station! We're not here to offer all this other stuff on or off our air!

Says who?

Remember previously I wrote that you are no longer simply a music radio station. From now on the opportunity - no, the demand - from Christian music listeners is that you become a Christian Media Ministry.

That means your opportunity - no, your obligation - is to offer more faith-related products, services, and experiences that are on-brand and fulfill the needs and desires of your current or potential audience whether or not it's on your air and whether or not it's even "radio."

But isn't that like saying the New York Times should also provide fans games simply because they want them? You bet. Silly. Oops.

Same for publications like The Atlantic - famous for political essays, certainly not for something as ridiculous as games. Silly. Oops.

So the lesson is this:

Your brand is either bigger than your airwaves or smaller than what fans want.

Pick one.

Mark Ramsey Media does audience research for Christian Media - Perceptual research, digital studies, donor studies, underwriter studies, music studies, etc. Learn more here. Call Mark at 858-414-4191 or email markramsey@mac.com.

And if you want a strategy to solicit major donors to pay for your research, look here and download this Listener Impact Study solicitation for donors from WAKW-FM.

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