Moneyball: A BIG Study Coming to CRS ’25
• NuVoodoo will be in Nashville later this week for the Country Radio Seminar. While there we’ll present a massive 1,500-person study of Country music fans — including nearly 1,200 Country radio listeners. Respondents have a lot to say about where Country music is heading, how they’re connecting to the music, which sources they’re turning to in different places and for different needs. Carolyn Gilbert and I will be on stage on Thursday morning for the presentation and look forward to seeing friends old and new.
As we were beginning the process for this study, we conducted nearly two dozen one-on-one interviews with Country fans on Zoom. We used the language they gave us as we built the questionnaire for the big study and we’re using clips from the interviews to bring emotion and context to the data. We’ve presented studies for years so we’re well aware of the limitations of charts and tables.
We’ve also harnessed AI to help comb through and concisely summarize what ends up being thousands of thousands of verbatim comments from open-ended questions in the study. Those longer-answer responses in a massive sample can be unwieldy, but in this case, they shed light on a number of issues — including what listeners love most about the personalities on Country radio.
While we’ll keep the data close to our vests so it’s fresh at our presentation in Nashville, we’ll share one data point — most Country radio listeners appreciate and value the on-air hosts on the stations they hear. So, it was sad to see that a substantial number of respondents say that hosts they’d enjoyed hearing have lost their jobs.
Listeners may not always know the names of the people they hear on the radio, but a familiar voice becomes a valued companion, a welcome presence. A different voice may be fine, but it’s still a change. What’s perceived as a hearty laugh by one person can he heard as an annoying cackle by another. The familiar turn-of-phrase is replaced by something that seems odd or off. Any of these mild shifts can cause a listener to seek out alternatives, which in 2025 include lots of options that will take them away from radio.
These perceptions of missing personalities are worst in the Northeast and Western US but are substantial in all four regions. In our presentation we’ll be sharing other breakouts of these data, plus lots of other talent-related insights. There’s substantial affection for Country radio — and for radio in general. We can maintain audiences and influence if we’re willing to lean into our strengths and give listeners more of what they love about radio.
NuVoodoo marketing guru Mike O’Connor is publishing important marketing insights from our latest general study, NuVoodoo Media and Marketing Study 25, twice every week at nuvoodoo.com/articles.
The Spring Book is about six weeks away. NuVoodoo would love to help your stations stay ahead of the competition with our effectively priced offerings for both marketing and research. An email to tellmemore@nuvoodoo.com will get you quick attention from the right member of our team. — Leigh Jacobs
