Country stations rank high in engagement with LDR technology

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LDR / Listener Driven RadioCountry radio listeners are the most active listeners across any genre when it comes to using LDR’s interactive broadcast technology — even when compared to top 40 and rock stations. The data is being released this week by LDR at the Country Radio Seminar (CRS 2013) in Nashville.


The findings indicate that country fans “out index” other formats when it comes to levels of engagement and voting for their favorite songs. The data is especially dramatic given that country is LDR’s third most popular format following first place top 40 and second place rock (all types).

Country stations that have adopted the LDR.1 and LDR.Takeover platforms include WQNU-FM Louisville, Kentucky; WGAR-FM Cleveland; KKBQ-FM Houston-Galveston; WBCT-FM Grand Rapids, Michigan; WHKO-FM Dayton, Ohio; KAWO-FM Boise, Idaho;; WSIX-FM, Nashville, Tennessee; KWOF-FM Denver-Boulder; WBTU-FM Ft. Wayne, Indiana; WYNK-FM Baton Rouge, Louisiana; WWKA-FM Orlando, Florida; KCYY-FM San Antonio; and KJKE-FM Oklahoma City.

“Top performing country stations enjoy the reputation of having extremely loyal and unique fans,” said Daniel Anstandig, president, CEO and co-founder of LDR.  “Country listeners want to be an active part of the audience when their favorite personalities and artists are on the air. LDR’s platforms encourage that engagement by allowing listeners to vote for the music they want to hear, pick the songs that play next on the air, receive SMS/text/twitter alerts when music from their favorite artists is about to air, engage in social media with other station fans and more.”

“Listeners love being in charge of JAKE-FM every weeknight,” said Kevin Christopher, co-operations director, Tyler Media, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. KJKE-FM’s 7PM-midnight popular ‘Jake Over’ program (http://www.jakefm.com/) allows listeners to decide every song the station plays in real time.  “Our evening numbers are up 25 percent year-to-year and the hip cool factor of having this technology on our station is second to none.”

Jonathan Wilde is program director of KWOF-FM in Denver, part of Wilks Broadcasting. His station adopted the LDR.1 platform in the fall of 2012. “LDR provides a great listener experience and helps us hold our audience through the stopset during voting sessions. The platform is slick, user friendly and foolproof.  It has created high dollar sponsorship opportunities for our station; I think it is a fantastic asset for any music-based radio station,” said Mr. Wilde.

“There are nearly 2,000 country stations on the air throughout the U.S.,” said Anstandig who serves on the CRS Agenda Committee.  “We are committed to helping them further engage their audiences with the latest technologies and the total sum experience of our more than 160 station, network and broadcast group partners.”