WXBM is the heritage country station in the area. Their morning show is tops - Marty and Linda are awesome and have been together for years now. Years ago WXBM was the underdog but they took down reigning country champion WOWW 107 which then became New Rock 107, then to oldies as Cool, and is now My 107.3. They also have live jocks 24/7 whereas Cat is satellite (Lia evenings and Danny Wright overnight.) XBM has no satellite programming but they do run syndicated shows on Saturday (Jeff Foxworthy) and Sunday (All morning, and then CMT Countdown on Sunday night.) Cat is definitely giving them a run for their money when it comes to promotions. However, Cat's on-air product is not as good as WXBM's, IMO.
My 107.3 music is good, but they definitely talk too much in the morning. They fill a unique format hole with their "classic AC" format - a little less sleepy than Soft Rock, just minus the current hits.
Q100 was much better (as a Hot AC) when they had Trey Matthews (WABB alum, from the days of the Goofy White Boys in the '80s) as their morning man after he was on Star 104 and it became Hot 104. Jon Stuart (also the PD) wears on the nerves. Wendi is OK - she was better with Trey, but Trey was only there a short time and was given the boot by Jon. Trey is now doing mornings on Soft Rock 94.1, but that format cramps his style... he was great when he could do more contests, parodies, skits, etc., on a CHR or Hot AC formatted station. His former partner from his second stint at WABB, Chris Smith, does mornings at Lite Mix in Mobile.
I liked Arrow 100.7 as well - does anyone know how its ratings were as Classic Rock compared to now? It was a much better station than 96.1 The Rocket. When Q100 first switched back and went straight CHR in 2000, they had Rick Dees in the morning. Once Cumulus launched Hot 104 they transformed Q100 to Hot AC. But I grew up with Q100 in the early to mid '80s when they used to give WABB a run for their money. They were a great station back then. Then in the '90s they started the format flipping - Super Q, then back to Q, then "Magic 100.7" and finally Arrow, before switching back to "Q100."
Soft Rock is good, but their music selection is extremely repetitive. They also are all VT and syndicated programming on the weekends. They lost their studio and most of their staff after Ivan and have been rebuilding. They hired a new PD (Annie Sommers) last Spring, who jazzed up the music some and eliminated a lot of chatter, but she left in July. They still don't have a new PD to my knowledge.
I have heard rumblings on this board that WYOK (Hot 104) in Mobile and possibly WTKE (98.1 Sportsradio The Ticket) may flip soon. I just hope we don't get another country station!