YES, EXACTLY!
David, you are exactly right!
You hit the nail on the head and just said what I've been thinking for a while now. Here in Lubbock, the big operators like CC (and Capstar before them), completely gutted the staffs, and automated everything. We all hoped that CC would make things sound better, but with all the big markets they had to spend money on, Lubbock (and markets our size) were the odd ones out. Instead, CC used the bigger regional markets (like Dallas, San Antonio) to voice track to the smaller markets like us. After all, why waste money on maket 189, when you high stakes in markets 1-20? So what we got in the end was just more voice tracking and empty studios, with minimal staff, unless you count the sales. Plus, to compete, other non-CC owned stations in the market had to make cuts too. I mean its a big domino effect. And I am not saying this to bash CC or anyone, it is just the economics of it. While it's probably true that CC can take advantage of imaging and networking from other stations in the chain, I think I'd rather have local programming and quality.
Than again, I was not in Lubbock before deregulation, but people tell me things sounded a lot better, and I have some airchecks to prove it. After spending some time in Boston and San Diego since CC took over everything, I can say with certainty there is a big difference between radio in San Diego and Lubbock.