73.6%
text into shows
This is not a passive audience
Nearly three in four listeners text into shows, and 92.6% like hearing calls. They participate, respond, and act — exactly the behavior response-driven sponsorships are built on.
Listener Survey Intelligence · 148 respondents
Local trust.
Daily habit.
Advertiser value.
The KTRS BIG 550 listener survey, rebuilt as an interactive sales story — a loyal, local, personality-driven audience with the in-car habits and cross-platform behavior advertisers actually pay for.
0.0%
like the local news
trust adjacency
0.0%
listen in the car
drive-time frequency
0.0%
listen daily or near-daily
habit strength
0.0%
have listened 11+ years
heritage loyalty
Scroll to explore the full survey
Listener Signal
"The text line is great. I texted in twice last week and both were read on air."KTRS listener"More stations should learn from how KTRS treats its audience."KTRS listener"Keep the call-ins coming. Real voices matter."KTRS listener"KTRS is on every morning on the way in — traffic, weather, then McGraw."KTRS listener"The personalities feel like friends I've had for twenty years."KTRS listener"Local news I actually trust. That's rare now."KTRS listener"I stream at my desk all afternoon — the app never leaves my phone's home screen."KTRS listener"This station sounds like St. Louis. Nobody else does."KTRS listener"The text line is great. I texted in twice last week and both were read on air."KTRS listener"More stations should learn from how KTRS treats its audience."KTRS listener"Keep the call-ins coming. Real voices matter."KTRS listener"KTRS is on every morning on the way in — traffic, weather, then McGraw."KTRS listener"The personalities feel like friends I've had for twenty years."KTRS listener"Local news I actually trust. That's rare now."KTRS listener"I stream at my desk all afternoon — the app never leaves my phone's home screen."KTRS listener"This station sounds like St. Louis. Nobody else does."KTRS listener
Audience Snapshot
Numbers that sell themselves
Every card is a live read on the filtered audience — and every one carries a commercial reason to care. Filter the data below and watch these move.
0.0%
Like the local news
146 of 148 respondents
Near-universal approval makes local news adjacency the safest, most trusted buy on the station.
0.0%
Listen in the car
138 of 148 respondents
Drive-time presence means repetition — the core of a frequency-based sales story.
0.0%
Use streaming
121 of 148 respondents
Streaming extends reach beyond the signal and supports cross-platform packages.
0.0%
Have the KTRS app
124 of 148 respondents
A large installed app base is a direct, ownable channel to loyal listeners.
0.0%
Text into shows
109 of 148 respondents
Texters take action — a strong signal for contests, offers, and response campaigns.
0.0%
Like listener calls
137 of 148 respondents
Call-in appeal shows an audience that leans in, not one that tunes out.
0.0%
Like the traffic reports
132 of 148 respondents
Traffic sponsorships put a brand inside a daily utility listeners actively value.
Reading the board
This is not a passive audience.
Approval, habit, and interaction all clear 70%. That combination — trust plus action — is what sponsors are actually buying.
What Makes This Audience Valuable
Six strategic reads on the same 148 people
The aggregates are strong. The story underneath them is stronger — here is what the data means before a single chart is opened.
81.8%
use streaming
Older audience, stronger digital behavior than expected
The stereotype says a 65+ audience lives on the dial. The data says 83.8% have the app and 81.8% stream. Cross-platform packaging is a real story here, not a stretch.
108
name McGraw Milhaven
Personalities are part of the value proposition
The most-coded reason people listen is the hosts themselves. Familiar voices carry trust — and host-read endorsements transfer that trust directly to a brand.
98.6%
like the local news
Local relevance is the trust engine
Local connection is the dominant appeal theme by a wide margin. KTRS wins on being St. Louis's own — a differentiator national platforms cannot copy.
93.2%
listen in the car
Daily in-car listening is a frequency asset
93.2% in-car and 79.1% daily or near-daily means the same people hear the same messages repeatedly, in a high-attention environment, at predictable times.
69.6%
are Interactive Fans
Interactive behavior supports action-oriented sponsorships
Texters and call-in lovers are primed for prompts: contests, text-to-win programs, event tie-ins, and host-read offers with a clear next step.
93.2%listen in the car
"KTRS is on every morning on the way in — traffic, weather, then McGraw. It is part of the drive, not background noise."
Interactive Data Explorer
Slice the audience any way a buyer would
Every control updates every visual on this page — the snapshot above, the segments below, and the response explorer at the bottom. Start broad, then cut to the audience a specific advertiser cares about.
Audience Filters
148 of 148 listeners
Platform & interaction behavior
Share of the filtered audience
Age composition
Respondents per bracket
Gender split
Respondents
54%Woman
Woman · 80Man · 68
Listening tenure
How long they have been with the station
Listening frequency
Habit strength
Top shows
Mentions — respondents could name several
Top personalities
Mentions — the trust assets on the air
Open-text themes
Coded from written responses
Audience Segments
Five ways to package the same loyalty
Each segment recalculates against the live filter set — percentages always describe the audience a buyer is actually looking at.
0.0%
136 of 148 in this cut
Habitual in-car listening
Daily Drivers
Frequent listeners who use KTRS in the car — daily habit plus drive-time presence.
Why advertisers care
They hear messages repeatedly during high-attention drive windows. Ideal for frequency-based campaigns where recall builds over weeks.
AutomotiveRestaurants / RetailHome Services
0.0%
106 of 148 in this cut
App plus streaming habits
Digital Loyalists
Listeners with the app who also stream — cross-platform by choice, not by accident.
Why advertisers care
They carry the station beyond the radio. Perfect for bundled terrestrial + streaming + app packages with measurable digital touchpoints.
Financial ServicesHealthcareStreaming-adjacent retail
0.0%
103 of 148 in this cut
Texters and call-in lovers
Interactive Fans
Listeners who text into shows and enjoy hearing calls — they participate, not just listen.
Why advertisers care
This group acts on prompts. Contests, text-to-win programs, and host-read response campaigns find their best audience here.
Events / CommunityRestaurants / RetailPromotions & contests
0.0%
94 of 148 in this cut
11+ years of loyalty
Heritage Audience
Long-tenure listeners whose habit signals deep trust built over a decade or more.
Why advertisers care
A decade of listening is a decade of trust transferred to the voices they hear. Host-read endorsements carry unusual weight here.
HealthcareLegal ServicesFinancial Services
0.0%
64 of 148 in this cut
Here for the local connection
Local Trust Seekers
Listeners who value the local news and name local connection as the station's core appeal.
Why advertisers care
They choose KTRS because it is theirs. Local brands that show up in this environment inherit that sense of community ownership.
Community / EventsHome ServicesLocal retail
Segment logic
Segments are computed from real response rows — behavior flags, tenure buckets, and coded themes — never from flat percentages. Filter to in-car streamers over 56 and every card above describes exactly that audience.
108name McGraw Milhaven unprompted
"The personalities feel like friends I've had for twenty years. When they recommend something, I pay attention."
Advertiser Opportunity Map
Where this audience turns into revenue
Category-by-category sales guidance: why the fit is real, the stats that prove it, and the package angle to open the conversation with.
Automotive
93.2% listen in the car — the exact moment driving decisions feel present. Dealers, service centers, and detailers reach people behind the wheel, daily.
93.2% in-car79.1% daily habit91.9% Daily Drivers
Suggested play
Drive-time flighting with dealer host-reads; traffic-report sponsorship puts the brand inside a daily utility. One respondent literally bought a car from a dealer heard on the station.
Healthcare
A 56-and-older core with decades of station trust is the prime audience for health systems, hearing care, Medicare advisors, and senior services.
87.2% are 56+63.5% heritage listeners92.6% like call-ins
Suggested play
Longer-form host endorsements plus call-in health segments. Trust transfer matters more than spot count for this category.
Legal Services
High-trust, high-frequency listening suits practices that win on name recognition and credibility — injury, elder law, estate planning.
98.6% local news approval79.1% daily habit20+ yr tenure: 63 listeners
Suggested play
Sustained presence over bursts. Pair midday host-reads with news adjacency where approval is near-universal.
Home Services
Established long-tenure homeowners hear about roofing, HVAC, and contractors repeatedly in a trusted local frame — and they act on familiar names.
63.5% listened 11+ years93.2% in-car69.6% Interactive Fans
Suggested play
Seasonal campaigns tied to weather coverage; text-line offers convert the interactive segment.
Restaurants & Retail
Daily routine listening reaches people deciding where to eat, shop, and run errands — often minutes before they do it.
79.1% daily habit73.6% text into shows91.9% Daily Drivers
Suggested play
Text-to-win lunch giveaways, live remotes, and personality endorsements that sound like a neighbor's recommendation.
Financial Services
An older, established, cross-platform audience fits retirement planning, wealth management, and local banking — decisions made on trust over time.
71.6% Digital Loyalists81.8% stream87.2% are 56+
Suggested play
Sponsor financial segments and stream/app placements to follow Digital Loyalists across platforms.
Community & Events
Local connection is the station's core appeal — festivals, charities, and civic events get an audience that shows up because it feels like theirs.
Local connection: top appeal theme92.6% call-in appeal73.6% texters
Suggested play
Event tie-ins with on-air calls, ticket text contests, and personality appearances. This audience participates.
The through-line
Sell the environment, not just the inventory.
Every category above is buying the same three things: a trusted local frame, daily repetition, and an audience that responds. The categories differ; the asset does not.
What the Data Is Really Saying
The questions underneath the charts
Read these before the next sales meeting. Each one reframes the survey from a report into a strategy.
79.1% daily habit
Are we really selling reach — or habit?
148 respondents is not a reach story. It is a repetition story: the same loyal people, hearing the same messages, at the same times, day after day. Priced as reach, KTRS looks ordinary. Priced as guaranteed frequency against a known audience, it is a different product entirely.
63.5% listened 11+ years
Is KTRS a media brand — or a trusted local routine?
Eleven-year-plus tenure for nearly two-thirds of respondents suggests the station functions more like a morning ritual than a channel. Routines are not casually switched off. That kind of embeddedness is what advertisers cannot buy on a programmatic exchange.
98.6% local news approval
Is local utility the real differentiator?
Local connection is the dominant appeal theme, and a meaningful share of listeners want less national politics, not more. In a market of ideological fatigue, useful local information — news, traffic, weather — may be the most defensible position the station owns.
18 listeners flagged app friction
Is digital monetization being held back by product friction?
83.8% have the app and 81.8% stream — but 'fix the app' is the second-most-coded improvement request. The cross-platform audience already exists. Every crash and dropped stream is inventory that cannot be packaged, measured, or sold.
108 name McGraw Milhaven
Do personalities convert trust into advertiser value?
The top reason people listen is the hosts. Not the format, not the music — the people. Host-read endorsements are the native ad product of this audience: a familiar voice saying a familiar name, inside a decade-old relationship.
Response Explorer & Insight Generator
The audience, in its own words
Generate an advertiser brief from the current filter cut, then dig into the anonymized verbatims underneath it. Everything here responds to the same filters as the charts.
Advertiser Brief Generator
148 respondents · full survey
This filtered group of 148 respondents centers on the 65-75 age bracket; with 20+ years as the most common tenure; 79.1% listen daily or near-daily, 93.2% listen in the car, and 81.8% stream; McGraw Milhaven is the most-named personality in this cut.
Talking points
- 98.6% approve of the local news — brand-safe adjacency with near-universal trust.
- 93.2% in-car listening makes drive-time frequency the core value story for this group.
- 79.1% daily or near-daily habit — messages repeat against the same audience day after day.
- 83.8% have the app and 81.8% stream — a real cross-platform packaging story.
- 73.6% text into shows — an audience primed for contests, offers, and response campaigns.
Promo angles
- Anchor a sponsorship inside McGraw, the most-named show in this cut.
- Host-read endorsements from McGraw Milhaven convert listener trust into brand trust.
- Text-to-win or text-for-offer mechanics will perform — this audience already texts in.
- Drive-time flighting with retail or automotive calls to action matches their routine.
Local connection · 37.2%Variety of shows · 16.2%Personalities · 15.5%Authentic / down to earth · 3.4%
Representative voices (anonymized)
"The text line is great. I texted in twice last week and both were read on air."
"More stations should learn from how KTRS treats its audience."
"Keep the call-ins coming. Real voices matter."
148 matching responses
Respondent #001Jul 14
65-75ManSeveral times a week11-20 years
"Carney and Buck make the evening commute bearable."
In-carAppStreamsCalls
Respondent #002Jul 14
75+ManDaily / near-daily20+ years
"They remember what this city was and care about what it becomes."
In-carAppStreamsTextsCalls
Respondent #003Jul 11
56-65WomanDaily / near-dailyUnknown
"The variety keeps it fresh after all these years."
In-carStreamsTextsCalls
Respondent #004Jul 13
56-65ManDaily / near-dailyUnknown
"Traffic reports that actually help me get to work."
In-carAppStreamsTextsCalls
Respondent #005Jun 10
56-65ManDaily / near-daily11-20 years
"The local focus. Everything else on the radio could be from anywhere."
In-carAppStreamsCalls
Respondent #006Jun 21
56-65ManDaily / near-daily11-20 years
"It knows this town. The Hill, the county, the east side, all of it."
In-carAppStreamsTextsCalls
Respondent #007Jun 29
56-65ManSeveral times a week20+ years
"The routine of it. Morning drive would be empty without it."
In-carAppStreamsTextsCalls
Respondent #008Jun 29
75+WomanDaily / near-daily20+ years
"Knowing I can text in and actually get read on the air."
In-carStreamsTextsCalls
Respondent #009Jul 15
65-75WomanDaily / near-daily11-20 years
"Carney and Buck make the evening commute bearable."
In-carAppStreamsCalls
Showing 9 of 148
Strategic Questions
Bring these to the next strategy meeting
The survey answers some questions cleanly and forces better ones. These six are worth an hour of leadership time.
Are we selling KTRS as a station — or as a daily habit?
79.1% daily or near-daily listening suggests the product is repetition, not reach. Pricing and packaging should say so.
Is local relevance the real differentiator?
Local connection dominates appeal themes while a vocal minority asks for less national politics. Utility may beat ideology.
Which personalities are monetizable trust assets?
McGraw Milhaven (108), Frank Cusumano (76), John Carney (70), Jill Farmer (65) — which voices get formal endorsement programs?
What sponsor categories fit listener behavior best?
Map segments to categories: Daily Drivers to automotive, Heritage Audience to healthcare and legal, Interactive Fans to promotions.
Where is app friction suppressing revenue opportunity?
18 listeners coded 'fix the app' — against 83.8% adoption. Quantify the listening hours lost before the next digital package is sold.
How can interactivity become a sales product?
73.6% text into shows and 92.6% like calls. Contests, text programs, and response campaigns deserve a rate card of their own.
Sales Playbook
Six moves for the next advertiser conversation
Practical guidance distilled from the full dataset — what to lead with, and exactly how to say it.
Lead with local trust
Open every pitch with the 98.6% local news approval and the dominance of local connection in open-text responses. Trust is the headline; everything else is supporting copy.
"Your brand sits inside the most trusted local environment in the market."
Sell frequency and daily habit
79.1% daily or near-daily listening plus 93.2% in-car means guaranteed repetition against a known audience. Sell flights as compounding recall, not spot counts.
"The same people hear you every day, in the car, at the moment decisions happen."
Use personalities as credibility assets
The hosts are the top-coded reason people listen. Build host-read endorsements and personality appearances into premium tiers — they transfer a decade of trust to the brand.
"Our hosts are not reading copy. They are making a recommendation to friends."
Package streaming with terrestrial
81.8% stream and 83.8% have the app. Every terrestrial schedule should have a digital counterpart — and every digital placement should credit the on-air halo.
"One buy follows this audience from the car to the desk to the phone."
Build interactive sponsor programs
73.6% text into shows and 92.6% like call-ins. Contests, text-to-win, and sponsored call segments convert listening into measurable response.
"This audience does not just hear your offer — they act on it."
Position KTRS as a useful local environment
Listeners are asking for less national noise and more local utility. Sponsors of traffic, weather, and news inherit gratitude, not just impressions.
"Be the brand inside the information St. Louis actually uses."
Listener Survey Intelligence
Habit. Trust. Local relevance. Advertiser opportunity.
148 listeners told us exactly who they are: loyal, local, personality-driven, in the car every day, and more interactive than anyone expected. The story is ready — take it to market.
Built from 148 anonymized listener survey responses · Internal strategy & advertiser presentation use