Edison Research Report: Morning Media Habits of Country Radio Listeners

What do country radio listeners do in the morning? Is radio still a part of their morning routines? According to a study from Edison Research, only 36 percent of country radio listeners have a radio in their bedroom, vs. 59 percent who have a television in their bedroom instead.

During the Country Radio Seminar on Feb. 26, Edison Research’s Larry Rosin and Megan Lazovick presented their findings on the morning habits and media usage of country radio listeners, based on more than 1500 respondents.

“Our presentation has fascinating data about those first moments in a person’s day – everything from what they do while still laying in bed to what they do while sitting at work. ” says Rosin. “Radio needs to make sure it stays competitive in those first moments of the day and adjust its strategy if necessary to do so.”

The study tracked respondents’ activities throughout the morning, including everything from eating breakfast, dressing, checking email, listening to radio, childcare, and more. Choosing from a list of over 60 items, the average respondent said he/she did one-third of the activities listed between the hours of 5 a.m. and 10 a.m.

Respondent data indicated the peak hour for respondents in the car to be between 7-8 a.m. Eighty-five percent of respondents reported listening to AM/FM radio during their morning drive, while 32 percent listen to CDs and 23 percent listen to satellite radio.

Rosin suggested morning programs should “provide hints and ideas for making mornings simpler and more efficient. One way is to stop providing information your listeners don’t care about or use radio for any more, like traffic.” The study showed that while 73 percent of listeners liked hearing music during their morning drive, only 45 percent liked getting traffic updates. Other favorited morning segments include weather updates (65 percent) and lighthearted news topics (60 percent). Interestingly, only 45 percent of listeners reported that they liked hearing live in-studio artist performances.

Rosin suggested programmers might consider adjusting the morning clock. “People are in their cars, yet we do these staccato breaks. We are talking to people at the one place they have the most access to the station-changing button and we create radio that is designed for tuneouts. Then they get to work and go into at-work modality where they are less likely to tune out and we create ‘no tuneout’ clocks.”