Interesting points, wxman. I offer for your consideration:
1) When was the last time anyone tried...seriously TRIED to go after KIX-104? The Cumulus counter-programming efforts were a joke. Did anyone else try? In the old days of KIX dominance, we assumed that the competitors knew better.
2) When the corporate people get their hooks into a signal, sometimes they strangle it. I don't know why. Both companies are cut-throat about their decisions. My way or the highway. They know better than you about the music, so don't bring it up.
3) Tends to work in a bigger market. Is NWA big enough? Jack and Bob were good ideas, but I don't think they are exclusively owned by C.C. or the Dark Cloud and that's what their iheart tells them is right. You may get this form of programming, but I'll bet it'll be called something else.
4) Unless and until this becomes so lucrative that someone HAS to do it, I don't look for anything to develop simply because of the presence of a minority populace. In my opinion, it's a racial issue, not one of programming...and it is NOT exclusive to Northwest Arkansas.
Ultimately, much of what you describe in your post is the direct result of big corporate ownership where "one size fits all" and they DON'T want your opinion. Why, can you imagine some hotshot in Atlanta (from Toledo, no less) accepting an idea from a local yokel in Hog Land? When I danced with these clowns, they couldn't even fix their signals so they could be properly heard...and even if they had, there were other issues they didn't want to address that would have kept them from winning. It no small wonder they weren't successful against the heritage of KIX.
They want their stations to be what/how they dreamed of. Problem is, what they want and what they need to do to get there are two entirely different things. They still believe in their formula. Clearly, I don't.
When we work the studio equipment, I frequently find that there are different ways to get the same job done. If the goal is to complete the voice-track, who cares how you do it? The equipment doesn't. The result is the same. Is one way right and another wrong?
These are concepts that the Dickeys and their kind either never pondered or rejected outright, probably because it wasn't their idea.
...and that's why it is what it is.