With radio still struggling over how much AI is too much AI, both on-air and behind the scenes, stations may be wise to heed a new 1,500-person study finding listeners prefer human-curated playlists over AI-generated ones nearly six to one.
The findings landed during “The Human Connection: Country Radio’s Superpower,” part of the CRS 360 webinar series. Moderated by CRB Executive Director RJ Curtis, the webinar features Strategic Solutions Research President & Founder Kevin Cassidy and SSR EVP & Partner Hal Rood, alongside CRB Research Committee Co-Chairs Clay Hunnicutt of Merch Traffic and Justin Chase of Beasley Media Group, who co-chair the organization’s research committee.
SSR first conducted one-on-one video discussions with 50 Country music fans before fielding the larger quantitative survey of 1,500 fans across the US, all of whom were regular radio listeners logging at least 30 minutes daily three days a week, split evenly by gender, and distributed according to US Census demographics. The sample was not screened for Country radio P1s.
A streaming coexistence finding may also reframe how programmers think about their competitive landscape. Only 21% of the radio listeners surveyed consume Country music exclusively through radio, with eight in 10 also using streaming services. Among DSP free-tier subscribers, 40% say they are hearing more commercials lately, and 76% perceive the commercial load on free streaming as equal to or greater than local radio.
Cassidy framed that gap as the more actionable audience segment. “Trying to pursue people with paid subscriptions is not the low-hanging fruit,” he said.
The human curation preference cut across age groups, including 18 to 24-year-olds. Respondents in open-ended responses identified a sense of community (4 in 10), local personalities (1 in 3), and local connection (1 in 3) as the defining features separating radio from streaming. The data prompted a direct call to action from Rood: if stations are not on-air about the fact that programming is human-curated, they are not getting credit for it.
“As AI-generated content proliferates, your positioning can get even stronger, not weaker,” he said, adding that the action plan has to run through every department.
Hunnicutt argued the case extends beyond a single slogan. “I think it goes even beyond a slogan to just organically integrating that into the programming,” he said. “An on-air host talking to the music director. ‘Hey, what songs are you looking at this week? I really feel like this song should be number one. Where’s your head at about it?’ It’s just organic demonstrations of the fact that there are people back there that are creating this listening experience.”
On personalities specifically, the panel’s recommendations centered on what Rood called a “companion, not announcer” framework, coaching talent to emphasize vulnerability, relatability, and daily connection rather than announcing. Listener comments pulled from the open-ended portion included phrases like “getting to hear that same radio personality every morning becomes part of your routine” and descriptions of on-air hosts as “good people, genuine, humble.”
Chase drew the connection between personality and new music discovery, arguing Country radio holds a credibility advantage in introducing artists that DSPs cannot replicate. “I don’t think there’s another format where new music is so important to the listeners than Country,” he said. “We have the hottest artists in all of music. Langley is not only the number one Country artist right now, she’s the number one artist in all of music. So if we’re not planting the flag that we are the place for new music, we’re missing out on a big opportunity.”
On contesting, 50% of respondents have actively participated in a contest, with the study suggesting multiple smaller cash prizes outperform a single large one in listener appeal. Gas cards and grocery gift cards indexed high against a backdrop the panel noted with University of Michigan data showing consumer sentiment in April at its lowest level since surveys began in 1952.
Spot load surfaced as radio’s primary vulnerability. More than half of respondents cited too many commercials as their top dislike, a finding the panel said should push stations toward non-spot revenue development rather than acceptance.
“Listeners are begging us to create more non-spot revenue so we’re not playing as many commercials while still hitting the budgets that we need to make as an industry,” Rood said.
One in five respondents also cited inconsistent signal as a dislike, which the panel tied directly to app promotion. Cassidy estimated a larger percentage of listeners than most stations realize remain unaware their station has an app, calling a refreshed app activation strategy a high-return, low-barrier opportunity.
A second CRS 360 webinar is planned for later this month to parse the study’s music component findings, including life-group differences within the Country fan base.
