BONEHEADED move. Anyone can see that there's way too much rock on the Baltimore dial already. 2 1/2 Rock stations are more than enough for a market that has too few signals to begin with. 98 Rock has the heritage and a stable niche, and ZBA and Jack have basically been beating each other into the ground vying for the Classic Rock audience. Of course, Jack plays some pop stuff too, but it's mostly a rock-based station. Does anyone think that Baltimore, which has always been partial to Urban and Country, can support 4 Rockers, especially when there are really only 10 or so in-market FM signals? Plus there's 105.7, which is basically vying for the same demo as the other Rockers.
CC should have gone after Lite-FM. 101.9 is a station that's schitzophrenic right now, because they're trying to cram 2 formats (AC and Oldies) onto 1 station. They're only as high as they are because they have no competition in either of them. Now, they have even less and stand to pick up some Smooth Jazz listeners. When you think about it, 101.9 is really the only listen-at-work station in Baltimore right now. When PPMs come along, they stand to clean up big time. In addition, the Female demo is surprisingly underserved in Baltimore.... only 101.9 and 106.5 are targeted at 25-54F. If CC came along and put a targeted Classic Hits or Mainstream AC format on 104.3, they could have blown 101.9 right out of the water.
At least one rock station won't make it. My bet is on 100.7. Shamrock should flip it to Classic Hits or Mainstream AC. 101.9 is just begging to be taken on, and 50% of its audience can probably be sheared off just by putting up a more focused station in either format. As for CBS, if Shamrock doesn't jump on it first, SPLIT UP 101.9. The station is a mess. Playing the Soft AC on weekdays annoys the Oldies listeners and just keeps reminding them they don't have QSR anymore, and the Oldies on weekends turns off people who would be loyal listeners to any other AC station, e.g. 106.7 in NY.
Jack and HFS target more-or-less the same demo. So merge them into a new 105.7. I can't imagine the weekend and night junk on HFS gets any listeners to speak of. So put Jack in those time slots. Brand the station as "Saying what we want, playing what we want", or something like that. That could create a decent station that can survive in a newly oversaturated demo. Then, split 101.9 in half. Bring back WQSR on 102.7 (with lots of 70s and 80s music added, a la CBS-FM in NY) and infuse 101.9 with a "Fresh" image. Drop all the 70s stuff and most of the 80s from 101.9, move them to 102.7 and turn 101.9 into a mainstream AC just like 106.7 in New York. Lite doesn't seem to be hurt all that much by the rebirth of CBS-FM there, and I think those two stations could coexist under the same roof. It would also be the perfect opportunity to focus Mix into a more agressive Adult CHR. These moves would make the CBS cluster so much more stable than it is now.
But whatever happens, the fact now remains: Male demos in Baltimore are now grossly oversaturated, and AC is now underserved Big Time. someone needs to fill that hole, be it with a Classic Hits station, a Mainstream AC, or both.