95.5 The Beat's signal is really bad in certain parts of downtown Atlanta. I'm amazed The Beat is "beating" both Star and Q in the ratings, but its a testament to Atlanta being one of the world's Hip Hop capital (besides, 95.5 The Beat has some of the best liners in town).
Both Q-100 (at 99.7) and Star 94 have amazing signals. Get this, I already started picking the signals up south of Athens...Tennessee! A good 3 hours away from the ATL! The signals faded in and out, but that's really impressive. It was pretty easy to pick up their signals along the Appalachians, and in Dhalongea, which is 2 hours north of Atlanta. Atlanta's 100.5 FM on the other hand wasn't audible yet in Gainesville, Ga while 99.7 easily was. Again, this is in my car, which has an amazing tuner, and where I was able to pick up Q-100 and Star 94 a good three hours north of Atlanta. That's the power of the 99.7 FM signal.
There's a few other stations in the south that have a true blowtorch of a signal. For example, Kiss 95.1 Charlotte can be picked just south of the Tri-Cities in TN....a good 4 hours drive from Charlotte, not to mention the fact that there's Electric 94.9 in the Tri-Cities (another station with a pretty monstrous signal).
I think Q-100's strength lies in the fact that it has a strong morning show, that Q plays a LOT more music in the afternoons when compared to Star, and Q-100 doesnt sound too conservative music-wise at night (though Star 94 is starting to catch up). Whats holding it back, as others have stated, is the cookie-cutter programming approach of Cumulus. it's an approch that works very well in places like Houston and Huntsville, and is a disaster in places like Savannah.
