For one, most people never call, and they do know it is hard to get through. Listeners are not stupid.
When was the last time you answered the request lines? People do call and they have a much more difficult time trying to get on the air competing with a national audience. That's a fact.
I have actually been in the training for the screener for our Recuerdo network night "love songs" show, which is in 12 markets, including 4 of the top 10. Sure, people call. But callers on that kind of show are a tiny percentage of the audience. Our night show cumes around 1.5 million, and we take, maybe, 30 calls a night. So nobody has a real expectation of being on the air. Everyone waits.
Oh, and as romer979fm stated, "Delilah is mid-market caliber at best"... Lovesongs has been a successful Southland show for a lot longer than Delilah has been on the air. LSOTC is an original, while Delilah is a pale copy who got lucky with syndication.
Incredible? I don't agree. Plus she has less competition now with consolidation. Not so all those years ago.
Consolidation and 80-90 has increased competiton because there exists the ability to create ad-hoc nets of many markets, often in the same company.
That just is not true. Some stations are able to do a good job with a night concept show and do not like the differences in the music (the main issue at KOST) but stations that do consider nights to be "a separate radio station" have very good ratings with Delilah. Bible Belt? Most of her big stations are anywhere but the Bible Belt.
Why yes, now that she's on Premiere/CC Stations she eliminated much of the competition, so she has surely improved her stature. But do you mean to say that she's not doing well in more smaller stations than large? Doubtful. She still got hammered by KOST and that's a fact too. Her act doesn't fly everywhere.
No show flys everywere. There will be local heritage, or the station does not give the new show time to develop. Perosnality shows, morning or night, take 18 months. How long did KBIG give Delilah?
I think Delilah is an incredible concept, well executed technically, and it generally does far better than Mr. Audio Vault.