(Nashville, Tenn. – Feb. 27, 2013) Country Radio Seminar’s 2013 research study was delivered in front of a packed house at CRS 2013, providing an in depth look into the lives and attitudes of Country radio fans and their interactions with the medium.
This year’s study was an ‘Ethnographic Study’, which profiled Country fans across the nation, examining them in their day-to-day environments to gather qualitative information regarding their use and consumption of County radio in an era filled with an array of music media outlets.
Radio consultant and CRS research chairman, Joel Raab said, “Going beyond X’s and O’s allows us to examine not only attitudes, but behavior. This added insight gives programmers new depth in understanding our fans.”
The fans selected for the study varied signifant in age and lifestyles and the results found that Country music touches the lives in deeply personal ways. And the study raises a key question: when Country fans/listeners respond with real emotion, why are radio stations becoming more and more like their automated competitors?
Among the study’s key findings were:
– Radio’s competition is no longer only between stations. The fight today is against all of the other media: Television(outlets like CMT/GAC/TCN), YouTube, Pandora, and even personal mobile devices.
– People are choosing to listen to the device that presents the path of least resistance. In the car, that remains radio. At home or in the workplace, there is a much more competitive situation: television, in particular, at home and the Internet at work.
– If one listens to radio today, it is often devoid of emotion. And yet when you talk to people in their homes, they place the emphasis on the emotions that country music elicits.
– One of the challenges that Radio faces is the fact that country fans don’t spontaneously equate country music strictly to country radio like the used to. This poses a challenge to radio provide talented DJs/hosts to guide the listeners in a more personal manner.
“For all of these nearly 40 years of radio research, we have concentrated largely on the hard facts of research, and the easily quantifiable – answering questions like: what portion of the audience likes this song? What portion of the audience works in an office?” explained, Edison Research Co-founder and President Larry Rosin. “But while we call people on the phone, or now contact them on the Internet, or bring them to hotel ballrooms for auditorium music tests or to focus group facilities, there is one place that our research hasn’t gone to – and that’s straight to the homes of our listeners. And while there in the homes we found an entire line of inquiry we largely hadn’t explored the emotions underneath our work and the real connections that people have to country music and country radio. Radio remains most people’s primary way to interact with the Country Music they love.”
According to CRS Executive Director Bill Mayne, “Their results yielded from this highly personal and rarely used ethnographic methodology exposes countinued challenges for country radio in the coming years. We are optimistic that the points brought to light in this study will yield considerable discussion in radio circles in the months ahead.”
The full CRS 2013 Country Radio research study is now available online at: www.EdisonResearch.com.
About Edison Research:
Edison Research conducts market research, survey research and exit polling, providing strategic information for businesses, governments and media organizations worldwide. Edison Research has been the sole provider of election exit poll information to the six major news organizations – ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC and the Associated Press – since 2003. Edison Research works with many of the largest American radio-related companies, including Entercom, Clear Channel, CBS Radio, Bonneville, Pandora and Dial Global; and also conducts strategic and opinion research for a broad array of companies including Time Warner, Google, Yahoo!, Sony Music, Voice of America, AMC Theatres and ZenithOptimedia. Edison also conducts strategic research for successful media companies in South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. For more information or a complete methods statement contact Edison via www.edisonresearch.com.
About Country Radio Seminar:
Country Radio Seminar is an annual convention designed to educate and promote the exchange of ideas and business practices in the Country music industry, with specific emphasis on issues relevant to Country radio. Visit www.CountryRadioSeminar.com for more information. Follow CRS on Twitter here and use the hashtag #CRS2013 to join in reporting from CRS 2013.
