Making Coronavirus Coverage Count

NuVoodoo has been tracking concern about the coronavirus since March 9 – more than two months. Each day sees a sample of at least 2,000 persons 16-54 nationwide. It’s a ton of data. Our team updates the tracking information on our website every day and is adding new results all the time. You can view the latest or subscribe for updates at nuvoodoo.com/covid-19-media-data/.

As noted last week, even with concern levels starting to slowly decline in parts of the country, many people remain vigilant about the potential for new outbreaks. Our data still shows over 60% of music radio listeners still want regular updates on the coronavirus situation where they live. Of course, it’s critical to ensure that the information is fresh and relevant. Information that’s even one day old or feels irrelevant to listeners will satisfy no one and end up inviting tune out – definitely NOT what you want.

We continue to ask respondents what coronavirus-related programming they want on the FM music stations they listen to most. We weren’t surprised by the results from nearly 2,200 respondents, ages 16-54 last week that placed the potential for breaking news about medical advancements at the top of the ranking. And, of course, there’s on-going concern for the possibility of fresh outbreaks.

Given a choice of which expert to get voicers from, these data show stronger interest in announcements from medical experts than government officials. At the same time, music that will make them feel good is in strong demand – along with commercial-free hours. Finally, we note very strong interest in contesting to help pay bills; reminiscent of what we’d seen in our initial NuVoodoo Ratings Prospects Studies back in 2011, as people were still digging out from the Great Recession.

To get you caught up with the playbook that we see evolving, we’ve updated the information from our April webinar and posted a fresh video that you can find at nuvoodoo.com/webinars – you’ll get all the important information in about 15 minutes.