CRB Releases Third Edison Media Research National Study of Country Listeners at CRS 38

(Nashville, Tennessee, March 7, 2007) This year’s Country Radio Seminar Research Study featured one of the largest sample of Country P1’s ever surveyed with over 22,000 country fans across the U.S., weighted and balanced to reflect the national Country audience composition according to Arbitron. The research, compiled by Edison Media Research, was co-sponsored by the Country Music Association and the Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc. Results of the research was broad and powerful. Some of the highlights include:

*Country continues to be an extremely healthy and well-regarded format, with 83% of those respondents expressing an opinion indicating that they were listening more to Country on the radio than they were a year ago, and 41% indicating that the current Country product is better than it was a few years ago, compared to only 11% believing it to be worse.

*The Internet continues to surge as a platform for music discovery, with 40% of those surveyed naming the web as the primary place they go to hear music unavailable on the radio, an increase of 7 percentage points over last year. MP3 players and downloadable music files also grew dramatically as an outlet for music discovery, from 16% to 26% over the past year. Also, over 20% of the Country partisans surveyed “often” or “sometimes” learned about new music from social networking sites, such as MySpace.

Over 60% of these Country partisans indicated that they had listened to their favorite Country radio station over the Internet.

Like last year, George Strait was most frequently-named as Country’s “All-Time Favorite” performer, while American Idol Carrie Underwood was most often cited as last year’s “new discovery” for these Country partisans.

“Music Discovery continues to be important for all Country radio partisans—young and old,” noted Edison Vice President Tom Webster, “but the Internet and downloaded files are rapidly catching up to CDs as the preferred alternative channels with younger demographics. With so many listeners turning to the Internet as their entry portal for music information and discovery, it is more vital than ever for Country Radio programmers to understand that their web sites are an integral part of their brand, and not just another vehicle for advertisements.”

According to CRB Research Committee Chair Charlie Cook of Cumulus Radio
“This study again proves that we are living in rapidly changing times and we have to continually change the way we operate within the radio industry. We are very pleased and excited with the trends we are seeing develop for the country format.”

“The Country Radio Seminar Research Study continues to be an important benchmarking study for the Country Music Industry that provides valuable trending data,” adds Rick Murray, CMA Vice President of Strategic Marketing. “We need to really focus on the continued shift to the internet amongst Country Radio listeners and consider any change in marketing strategy that will help Country Radio not only keep up with current listeners, but use these enhanced strategies to expand the market.”

The full survey is available at both the Edison and crb.org sites. In addition to all the research data, the survey contains rankings of dozens of artists, the most popular recordings of the year, and opinions on the current crop of Rock/Country crossover artists.



Edison Media Research conducts survey research and provides strategic information to radio stations, television stations, newspapers, cable networks, record labels, Internet companies and other media organizations. For further information visit www.edisonresearch.com.

The Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc is a non-profit organization founded in 1969 to bring radio broadcasters from around the world together with the Country music industry for the purpose of ensuring the continued vitality of the Country radio format. They do this by idea sharing and education through an annual convention called the Country Radio Seminar. Country Radio Seminar is a registered trademark of Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc.

CRS-38 News
For Immediate Release

Contacts:

Jeff Walker – AristoMedia – 615.269.7071 ext. 123 – jwalker@aristomedia.com

Larry Rosin – Edison Media Research – 919.260.0228 – Irosin@edisonresearch.com

Alicia Bushe – Edison Media Research – 919.260.0228 – abusche@edisonresearch.com

Ed Salamon – CRB, Inc. – 615.327.3387 – ed_salamon@crb.org