Following yesterday's webinar, Alan Burns and Associates have released more results from the company's third annual national study of female radio listeners, titled "Here She Comes 2012 - Insights into Women, Radio, and New Media." The newest release suggests that the CHR format’s recent ratings surge is related to Hip Hop’s decline. 

Burns says, "Hip Hop’s appeal to women declined from 2010 to 2011, and then nearly disappeared in 2012. As Top 40 has played less Hip Hop in reaction, the format’s numbers have grown.  Hip Hop interfered with mother/daughter listening, but today’s poppier sound has broadened the format’s appeal. Top 40 is always more successful when it isn’t too extreme." 

While Pop and Pop-rhythm sounds continue to dominate popularity among Top 40 listeners, another change that has occurred is that the popularity of music by artists like Kelly Clarkson, Pink and Adele has increased in appeal. "That’s helping both mainstream Top 40 and Hot AC." noted Burns. 

Another finding from today’s webinar is that the biggest difference of winning Top 40 stations in PPM  versus their in-format competitors is that the PPM winners have much larger images for entertaining morning shows. "While ‘more music’ is useful strategy for challengers, it isn’t correlating strongly with winning," said Burns SVP Jeff Johnson.

With the Presidential election looming this fall, the Burns study also asked women who they’d be most likely to vote for - Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. "Gen Y’ers and Top 40 fans lean heavily toward Obama," said Burns. "Two-thirds of the format’s P1s told us they’re registered to vote, more are planning to become registered by the fall, and as of late spring Obama would beat Romney by a 25-point margin. That’s all subject to events between now and November, but Obama has a huge head start with younger voters."

Burns and Associates researched the attitudes toward and usage of media and music as well as the personal interests of over 2,000 women who listen to AC or CHR radio. Burns is releasing the results of the 2012 study in a series of four free webinars presented by Triton Digital. To register, click here.