My cousin works for a CC station in another Southeastern city, and he told me that it's well known within CC that Atlanta is the sick child of CC.
But why? Let's see...
Your top-rated stations (Project and Bull, both 100kW signals) are 14th and 16th in the market. Assuming 99x/Q100 gets a bump and Dave picks up a point from 99X, Project and Bull will be fighting each other for the worst ratings of a 100kW station in the market.
You have the top-rated AC station in Atlanta and have your updial competitor (B98.5) on the ropes. So what do you do? Change your branding because people make fun of it because you used it back in the Beautiful Music days, and send your ratings into the toilet. THEN what do you do? Well, Atlanta has five country stations, if you include the rimshots South 107 out of Rome/Rockmart, WNGC 106.1 out of Toccoa/Gainesville, and WEKS 92.5 The Bear out of Griffin. Let's make it SIX! Atlanta's the SOUTH! They looooove country music there! Surely it'll be easier to compete against 5 country stations than one AC station!
You have an AOR station that once ruled the airwaves, even topping Arbitron at one point over V-103 and Star 94 and Power 99 and WSB AM* (*pre-talk radio boom). Yet, you've programmed it over the years into nothingness. What kind of AOR? Is it classic? Is it straight ahead AOR? Is it new rock? Well, they had a good morning show, but they made fun of the Latino station's personalities. Fire 'em! Heck, let's change the branding, dump a heritage brand of 32 years, and start new!
You have an AM talker that is 50kW day, but is 23rd in the market, below a sports-talk station. Not even "Planet Radio" was this much of a disaster...