A&O&B’s Pre-CRS Seminar Shares Insights Into the Shifting Radio Audience

New study findings

Ahead of this week’s COUNTRY RADIO SEMINAR (CRS), Country radio consultants MIKE O’MALLEY and BECKY BRENNER of ALBRIGHT & O’MALLEY & BRENNER (A&O&B) hosted their 27th annual pre-CRS seminar TODAY (2/15). In addition to several informational panels, the virtual event included a three-song set from COLUMBIA NASHVILLE artist KAMERON MARLOWE who performed two of his own songs, plus a cover of JOHNNY CASH’s “FOLSOM Prison Blues.”

The three-hour event opened with a surprise appearance from retired A&O&B partner JAYE ALBRIGHT, who spoke from her home in LAS VEGAS about how radio has risen to the challenges of the pandemic, including via ZOOM calls with artist and listeners. She urged attendees not to forget those skills moving forward as the pandemic wanes, noting that one-to-one interaction with listeners has always been radio’s strength.

BRENNER and O’MALLEY then presented highlights from their 16th annual online perceptual study, “Roadmap 2021." This is the largest study of Country P1s in the U.S. and CANADA, with over 10,000 respondents. Among this year’s findings: for the first time there was a three-way tie when 25-54 year olds were asked to name what is “very important” to them in a radio station. The top three answers, each cited by 79% of respondents, were that the station makes them “feel good” when they listen, that the DJs feel “like friends,” and that the station has the “best music.” When asked how good their favorite stations are at delivering what’s important to listeners, radio exceeded listener expectations in 12 of 13 categories, the one exception being the “plays the best music” category, where the reality was under listener expectations. There was no change in radio satisfaction scores compared to last year’s study, with 68% of U.S. radio listeners categorizing themselves as “very satisfied” in both 2020 and 2021. (In CANADA, the number slipped a bit from 64% to 62%.)

The “Roadmap” study also showed nice growth in listening to Country music via smart speakers, rising from 37% to 42% from last year. Car radio listening for Country stayed steady at 97%. Listening to owned Country music dipped from 60% to 55%.

The study also found that 41% of Country P1s own one or more smart speakers, and in the past 30 days, 42% listened to a Country AM/FM station via smart speaker. Said BRENNER, “The smart speaker campaigning that radio is doing is working.”

Radio remained the #1 source of music discovery, with 64% of those surveyed citing it as a source of finding new music, down slightly from 66% last year.

FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM are still the most used social platforms among Country listeners, and “no new platforms have emerged in the past three years that come close to FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM usage by Country listeners,” the study found. A total of 83% of the women and 68% of the men surveyed use FACEBOOK daily.

Asked about podcasts, the majority of those surveyed (67% of the women and 61% of the men) say they listen “barely, if ever.” Just 8% of men and 5% of women say they listen to podcasts daily.

When asked about what kinds of text alerts they would most desire receiving from a radio station, 79% of those surveyed cited contest notifications, 59% said exclusive clues for contests, and the same percentage cited weather alerts, followed by breaking news (56%), advance concert and pre-sale information (53%) and traffic alerts (43%).

In a session on database marketing and listener engagement, SECOND STREET MEDIA Dir./Email Success TIM D'AVIS shared examples of how BEASLEY MEDIA is seeing great engagement rate success with email by sending its station databases more artist-focused content. He was bullish on email campaigns as a way to reinforce on-air and social media promotions, noting that 91% of people polled in a study use email at least daily (compared to 57% for FACEBOOK and 14% for TWITTER). He also noted that 58% of people say email is the thing they check first, compared to 11% who check FACEBOOK first and 2% for TWITTER.

D’AVIS also said email is the #1 driver of promotions activity, with 70% of such activity coming from email. He also said promotions are the #1 driver of email permissions, with 87% of new email opt-ins coming from promotions. He also suggested purging databases of people who haven’t engaged with station emails for a period of time (he recommended nine months), saying that losing those database entries will help improve open rates and, ultimately the station’s GOOGLE ratings. Asked for advice about email subject lines, he said they should always include a promise of content the email can actually deliver rather than a clickbait-style tease. Your job, he told attendees, isn’t just to get listeners to open that email, but also the next one and the one after that.

Among the day’s other sessions, PAULA BEADLE, CEO of CARAVEL, gave a presentation called "Navigating the Future Landscape of Sponsorship." BEADLE shared her insights on how radio can better monetize its assets through successful partnerships with sponsors. And best-selling author best-selling author BRENDAN KANE shared key takeaways from his new book, "Hook Point: How To Stand Out In A 3-Second World,” and related them to the seminar’s audience of largely radio broadcasters.

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