For Immediate Release:

Monday, January 3, 2005

There is no "Average" Radio Listener

During the twelve months ending December 15, 2004, Bridge Ratings has been conducting an eye-opening series of studies related to iPod/MP3 player libraries.

Study goal: To learn about radio listener music preferences.

Methodology:

Two groups of music consumers were tracked.

A) Listeners whose listening to traditional radio has decreased at least fifteen percent in the previous 9 months.

B) Listeners whose listening to traditional radio has maintained increased or decreased less than ten percent in the previous 9 months.

Each group was divided into music constituencies, i.e., participants were placed into groups representing their primary radio listening. For example, individuals whose favorite station was Country, were placed into a Country constituency. These groupings allowed us to study music purity when studying the music file selections on their digital players. (see charts below)

1200 persons 12+ in each of the above categories were tracked weekly over a period of three months. During this time, each participant was willing to share the contents of his/her digital music player.

Findings of Interest:

This last point raises a very interesting and important point: today's radio listeners prefer diversity in their music entertainment. Both groups' radio listening experience suggests that their lower time-spent-listening is a function of a desire to hear more musical diversity and thus spend time with more stations each week than previously thought.

This higher desire for more variety of music radio station choice each week is the motivator for listeners to seek additional music diversity by managing their personal music choices through MP3 players.

The study found that a significant portion of traditional radio's listener base is driven to alternative digital entertainment choices by lack of musical diversity on traditional radio.

The diversity of the music on the digital players of each format constituency group was then plotted to give us a sense of commonality - if there was any - among the types of variety sought by each musical constituency. What we found was that, yes, most constituencies tend to prefer at least one music type in addition to the one which defines their favorite station music preference.

The Adult Contemporary Listener

Interpretation

Digital player content was measured by:

a) Incidence rate - The potential of this music type to have a place on digital music players of listeners who consider an Adult Contemporary radio station to be their favorite, the one they listen to most. On a scale of 1 to 10. The closer to 10 the higher the chance this type of music appears on their digital player.

b) Compatibility - As reported by the sample, the perceived preference of music type. On a scale of 1 to 100 percent.

How to read: Of those listeners who consider Adult Contemporary radio as their favorite, the Oldies music type has a 98.7 percent compatibility with their music tastes, i.e. this music type was rated highest by 98.7 percent of the sample, while Adult Contemporary music was the music type with the most songs, as a percentage, on the overall sample's list of songs on their digital music players.

These examples represent just three of the format types measured in this project. What is clear is that radio listeners who report preferences for radio stations with specific/narrow music formats have broader musical tastes than previously quantified. Over 85% of those interviewed for this project told us that the digital player offered them custom entertainment diversity in one compact solution and this was the number one reason they were spending more time with their digital players and less with traditional radio.

Implications for the Radio Programmer

Radio programmers, regardless of format, armed with this research will be able to determine new ways to expose their core library as well as what type of complementary music types to include in the mix. The mix is determined by the what the grids indicate are acceptable levels of tolerance for the core listener.

For example, among Country listeners, our research shows a permissible tolerance for Oldies and AC music. The selection of the proper titles from these music types is the secret sauce here. Not all Oldies or AC titles will work in the Country music environment, but our studies show that there is an acceptance and interest for more of this type of music in the Country radio music mix. The same is true for other music formats we have studied.

Inevitably, we are learning that within reason programmers should be more broad with their playlists than more narrow. This paradigm shift in radio programming will require an intelligent use of a diversity of titles from the "palette" of acceptable music types for specific music formats.

For additional information or advisement, contact Dave Van Dyke at 818.291.6420.

Markets measured: Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Lafayette, LA, Toronto, Cleveland