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AFN Europe is debuting a new AFN The Eagle Top 20 AFN countdown show and adding more stateside and host nation news as a result of its newly concluded survey.
The network wanted at least 1,500 online surveys but got 4,637, thanks to advertisements in installation newspapers, AFN publicity that included 10 “fill out a survey” radio remotes and the enticement of a prize by the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort.
The Statistics
The survey indicates most U.S. military personnel in Europe listen to the radio when they drive to work, just like they do in the states.
Most listeners tune in to AFN The Eagle (family friendly music mix service) and Power Network (mostly news and talk) from 6 to 10 a.m. on weekdays. Among people who listen to AFN The Eagle, 76.7 percent listen to the morning DJ from 6 to 10 a.m. while 58.6 percent of Power Network listeners tune in to Morning Newswatch from 6 to 9 a.m.
Americans’ musical tastes vary as wildly as the flavors you find at a European sidewalk ice cream shop.
While 47.7 percent of listeners want to hear more country, 44.1 percent want to hear less. And although 40.1 percent of respondents want to hear more hip-hop and R&B, 54.3 percent want less.
In comparison, only 21.9 percent of respondents said they want to hear less of Hot Adult Contemporary music, the dominant music in the AFN The Eagle format.
With this in mind, AFN Europe is giving stations more flexibility to reach listeners with a mix of Progressive Hot Adult Contemporary music that meets local audience preferences.
For example, AFN Benelux, which serves NATO Headquarters, will play a mix of music that better appeals to older listeners, while AFN Bavaria will play music that appeals to the younger listening audience of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment and other combat units in the station’s listening area.
Network Changes
The AFN Europe survey indicated strong support for the AFN The Eagle format as well as weekend countdown shows, so the network will debut a new Eagle Countdown show at 1 p.m. Sundays, featuring the most popular songs airing on the Eagle that week.
You’ll choose what will be on the countdown by casting your vote on the afneurope.net Web site. AFN plans to start the new show in May.
Other radio programming changes include: moving Little Steven’s Underground Garage from AFN The Eagle at 4 p.m. Saturday to Power Network at 8 p.m. Saturday since it’s more popular with the older listeners who tune in to the Power Network.
American Country Countdown will also move from 11 a.m. Sunday to 5 p.m. Sunday on AFN The Eagle. The popular show will also continue to air on the Power Network.
Z Rock 50, which aired at 5 p.m. Sundays on AFN The Eagle, will go off the air completely.
The survey shows National Public Radio shows, Rush Limbaugh and Ed Shultz all have loyal, dedicated listeners and AFN Europe won’t change anything with them.
The major complaints about AFN Radio were poor reception and difficulty tuning in frequencies with American car radios.
AFN, in coordination with host nations, continues to work on getting better frequencies, but host nations naturally get priority. Add to this that getting a new radio frequency usually takes about seven years.
Since the entertainment programming you see on AFN TV comes from the Broadcast Center in California, AFN Europe focused its TV questions on products created in Europe such as the AFN Europe Report and short infomercials called “spots.”
Audience comments on spots ranged from, “I get real tired of the same old commercials,” to, “run the shows without the public service announcement breaks, then use the extra minutes to run selected short newscasts and short videos.”
But eliminating the spots and airing stateside commercials isn’t possible.
AFN Europe’s primary mission is getting out command information. Airing commercials would result in producers charging the American Forces Radio and Television Service for shows such as “24,” “Lost” and “American Idol” instead of giving them to the military practically for free, since AFN is a non-profit network.
AFN Europe does produce some quality TV spots. The military services just announced AFN Bavaria produced the best TV spot in the Army and AFN Naples created the best TV spot in the Air Force. When it comes to quantity, the AFRTS Radio and Television Production Office has an inventory of about 2,200 TV spots, AFN Europe headquarters more than 300 and each local station an inventory of about 100.
Still, the network agrees more quality spots are needed, producers need to avoid using negative and preachy approaches and the inventory at all levels should include more spots on host nation events, activities and destinations.
Another major TV finding was that only 19.2 percent of survey respondents say they watch the AFN evening newscast every night.
Everyone else said they watch it less than twice a week or didn’t even know the network had an evening newscast.
In response, AFN Europe is expanding its newscast to 30 minutes to provide the audience a more traditional news show and brainstorming on how to make the newscast better.
Early ideas include giving the audience more stateside, world and host national news and information, airing the program at a better time and promoting it better. The network wants to include more audience ideas into the newscast via focus groups.
If you would like to participate in a focus group, see a spot that fails to communicate because of its approach or you memorized all the words, or want to sound off on anything about AFN Europe, go to www.afneurope.net and provide your comments through the network’s feedback form.
(Courtesy of AFN Europe)
