Essentially three groups own stations in this market. Vox owns the Marion stations, which are WXXC (Classic hits), WCJC (country), WMRI (ESPN) , and WBAT (talk). Backyard owns the Muncie/Anderson stations...WLBC (Hot AC), WMXQ/WMQX (classic rock), WERK (oldies), WHBU (talk), and WXFN (Fox Sports). Citadel also owns an AM-FM combo out of New Castle, WMDH (Country) and WLTI (Classic Country).
Out of all the stations in the market, two of the class B stations, WLBC and WXXC, and one class A, WMXQ, are the only stations that totally cover the entire market. WMDH effectively covers both cities, but provides a B grade signal through Marion since its tower is located in northern Henry County. Plus, WMDH shares its country audience in Marion with local WCJC as well as their sister station based out of Kokomo, WWKI, which delutes its ratings.
Long story short...There's not too much in the way of competiveness here. The 50,000 watters battle it out, but most of the smaller FMs and all the AMs pretty much stick with marketing to either Muncie or Marion.
