What Women Want

Did you check out the Alan Burns study about morning radio here on All Access this week? There was a webinar, apparently; I missed that one. But the follow-up in Net News was still informative. Check this out:

Burns and his associates conducted their second survey of women who listen to AC and Top 40 radio. Turns out, the favorite radio feature among women 15-54 is prank phone calls, along with various forms of trivia bits. But Burns noted that less than 40 percent of women say that there is even one bit or feature that they look forward to hearing on morning radio. Conclusion: Radio is not creating enough compelling content for these women listeners.

On the upside (for us Christian radio folks), the women wished that radio provided them with more information about the personal safety of listeners' children. That was a top 5 of information they wanted. (Are you giving them that?)

About 36 percent of women surveyed turn on the radio before they leave the house, and Burns notes that these women will get up, ready and out the door in about an hour's time. That means, he says, that morning shows need to be peppy and show their best before 7 a.m. If you want to hit them before they leave home, don't save your best for later.

OK, so this study was done with women in the AC and Top 40 formats in mind, but can we look for some correlation here.

The point about information regarding their children's personal safety is a big one, right? Women as young as 20-years-old were expressing concern about this in this study. If we are "safe for the family" and "the little ears," are we providing the women and mothers of these children the information that falls in their top 5?

And what about the features and bits we're doing? OK, so maybe the regular crowd we have listening doesn't want to hear the prank calls (though, admit it, they can be funny), but what about trivia? You go trivia? Because apparently those are bits they remember.

Last but not least, don't save your best for last. Don't drag things out over three hours. Be peppy with a complete feature in one hour before 7 a.m. - at least according to Burns.

If you give them something good before they leave the house, maybe they'll spend the rest of the day with you. Just a thought.... Read the piece in Net News and see what you take away from it.