Moneyball: Urban/Urban AC P1 Deep Dive

Last week we shared a deep dive into findings concerning Classic Hits and Classic Rock P1s from the latest NuVoodoo national study. We’ll continue this week with a deep dive into P1s for Urban and Urban AC radio.

Their favorite music radio station ranks fifth among various media and digital presences in their lives, only Google, YouTube, Amazon, and Facebook rank ahead of the favorite music radio station of Urban and Urban AC P1s. It’s worth noting that, among Urban P1s both TikTok and AI are now as important as their favorite music radio station. While among Urban AC P1s, their preferred Cable TV news channel ranks just behind their P1 radio station.

Radio is the last thing that most (51%) Urban AC P1s heard in a vehicle, with streamers like Spotify being the last thing heard by just over a third (35%) of that group. Radio and streaming drop back six or seven points among Urban P1s, with much of that slack taken up by respondents who say that the last thing they heard in a vehicle was a Podcast. It’s important to recognize that radio is in a battle with lots of audio media choices in current generation vehicles. That means radio must remind listeners regularly what they’ll miss if they don’t tune back in later (or tomorrow). Sometimes a reminder alone is enough, but stations need to think more about making those reminders focused on genuinely entertaining events upcoming on the air.

Asked their top three reasons for listening to the radio, nearly half of Urban AC P1s say it’s because radio is free, though nearly 2 in 5 cite that radio helps improve their mood. Mood improvement and zero cost are nearly tied for the lead among Urban P1s, where companionship and weather rank third and fourth respectively. “Music that makes you feel good” has been a staple of positioning statements on AC for years and is a reminder that on-brand versions of this would work well across many music formats.

With 28% of Urban P1s citing weather as one of their top reasons for listening in 2025, weather remains an easy-to-provide service that makes programming both local and timely, both fine attributes to have in your station’s favor.

We’re not showing the data on why these groups change stations, because in both cases it’s around 50% that cited commercials and music selection woes, though Urban AC P1s had the same level of complaints about “talk that doesn’t interest me.” Music selection can be improved with music testing – and anything else that provides solid feedback on music from listeners to your station in your market. While national streaming stats are impressive, they often don’t provide an accurate reflection of tastes among a local radio audience.

While it’s likely that “talk that doesn’t interest me” includes the talk they hear in the commercial breaks, it underscores the need to keep talk breaks and promo content focused. As noted last week, it’s important to filter every bit of talk content through the ears of the listener. Why would it be interesting to them? How does it benefit them? What can you do to bring the content more into focus for the listener?

Marketing, particularly when a cash contest is included in the creative, drives sampling. Around two-thirds of both Urban and Urban AC P1s say they usually tune into a station when they see ads promoting a contest. It’s important here to call out that among both P1 groups – and especially Urban P1s – there’s strong skepticism about the legitimacy of radio contests.

Around half of the Urban P1s and nearly two-fifths of the Urban AC P1s think radio station contests are rigged, that the prizes are never really given away. Evidence suggests this is connected with the proliferation of collective contests across multiple markets where contest solicitations are frequent, but audio featuring winners is rare. Stations running local-only contests should work vigorously to get local winners on the air frequently and showcase the neighborhoods, workplaces, etc. of winners to prove legitimacy and enhance listener attitudes. Stations running collective contests should work to find acceptable winner audio to run in local promos and, obviously, go nuts with promotion when you get a local winner to the collective contest.

Next week: a deep dive into CHR and AC P1s.

If you’ve just received approval on budget for a fall marketing campaign NuVoodoo would love to show how our experience finding the right people and our technology making potent use of Connected TV that enables us to stretch your budget. Email me at leigh@nuvoodoo.com for a quick response.

If you’re worried about music selection problems on one of your brands, NuVoodoo has library tests starting at $9500 and barter options available in many markets. An email to leigh@nuvoodoo.com will get you a quick response.