Kent is right, the decision to move KBPA was not dumb at all (although the filing makes it sound as though they didn't have much of a choice). Even though Hays County is growing quickly, it is only a fraction of the population of Travis County where the new antenna will be located and this move will also help the station in Williamson County which is also substantially more populated than Hays. It will greatly reduce the signal in Comal, Guadalupe, and Caldwell counties, but the first two those are in the San Antonio market, not Austin, and Caldwell is very rural and sparsely populated. This is a great upgrade for 103.5 (and a move of 101.5 to that tower in my opinion would have been a overall downgrade despite "upgrading" from a C2 to a C1).
I think the move of 93.3 is slightly more nuanced, but is probably still a net positive. Even if it is a downgrade to a C2, the location is just so much closer to the center of the market's population that i understand how you can justify it. I'm curious to those in Austin though, which is the better signal, 93.3 or 98.9? 93.3 is where 98.9 used to be located, prior to downgrading to a C3. On paper 93.3 should be better, but in actual listening, i'm not so sure.
As for Star, I agree it is kind of a mess. The soft ac also seemed to me to be out of place in the market. The new Hot AC/CHR hybrid is... not there yet. They kept the old branding and so it feels old and incongruent even though the playlist if mostly new. I'm not really sure there is anything obvious for them to switch to though. I would love to see 590 get a full FM signal some day.
