Not necessarily. It's a matter of promotion.
When CC flipped 102.5 to country, they were actually doing some decent damage against Big Frog -- at first. The "20 song bob-a-thons" forced the Frog to kill it's long-standing "10 in a row" slogan almost instantly. But Frog found other ways to bring on the defense... and CC failed to keep the promotional momentum going after the initial launch. Had CC efforted a continuous offensive firing on all cylinders, they could have earned themselves some pretty decent numbers. I don't think they ever could have won the battle, but they probably could have done well enough that it wouldn't have been necessary to give up and flip formats again just a couple years later.
And history repeated itself with Mix. They stole away some of Lite's listeners, though the crossover with CHR probably wound up doing just as much damage to sister station Kiss. Since the initial launch, you don't see or hear much in the way of outside promotion. If you're not already aware of what Mix 102.5 is, you're probably not going to find out unless you happen to hear it playing on a friend's radio, or in some retail establishment.
And I could even say the same about The River. No doubt they were going after Rock 107, and even Oldies 96 with that playlist of "deeper cuts" and promoting themselves as being "all about the music," targeting middle-aged adults. But again, after the initial launch, where was the promotion?
Sure, it's expensive to get billboards, TV and print ads. But a new radio station needs to get its name out there, especially in a market like U-R where people are known for being stuck in their ways. Simply promoting yourself the first 6 months you're on the air doesn't cut it. It needs to be an ongoing effort. A marathon, not a sprint. If CC corporate had invested a little more for long-term promotion, they probably would have benefitted with higher ratings, and a buyer willing to pay more for the cluster than Levine could have offered.