New research from nuVoodoo shows that radio and streaming reinforce each other among Country listeners rather than compete. The analysis, presented in a CRS360 webinar, expands on findings first shared at CRS 2026.
According to the study, 94% of Country fans use streaming services and 86% still listen to AM/FM radio. Among heavy streaming users, three in five are also heavy radio listeners.
Radio holds a strong edge in new music discovery. Overall, 58% of respondents said they were extremely interested in new Country songs. That number climbed to 65% among Country radio P1s but fell below 50% for heavy streamers with light AM/FM listening habits.
The test evaluated 427 songs across five decades. Pre-2010 titles delivered the strongest performance. Songs from 2015–2019 also scored well, while 2024 and 2025 releases showed wider variance. Fourteen streaming-dominant tracks with limited radio airplay were deliberately included; most ranked in the lower half of the results.
Gender differences stood out as a key programming insight.
Country stations are now delivering near-equal or male-skewing audiences, shifting from the format’s traditional female dominance. Women 25-49 prefer pre-2010 songs, while men 18-34 lean newer.
“Three in ten men 18-34 have been country fans for five years or less,” noted NuVoodoo President Leigh Jacobs. “They’re finding the format now.”
Jacobs described the format’s reliance on currents clearly: “The gold is here to fill in those moments when you don’t have anything that’s just oh making the ground shake that you’re playing as a current. It’s a current-driven format.”
Country Radio Broadcasters released the full “The Music Test” results following its CRS 2026 session. The data comes from 600 screened Country fans (who named the genre as their favorite) drawn from more than 2,000 interviews, balanced to U.S. adult 18-49 population benchmarks.
Full tabulations by gender, age, region, and time as a Country fan are available on the CRS website.