Not true! I gave them a bunch of chances but PD Michelle Engle f-ed it up. Rather than playing newer artists or forgotten songs by traditional artists, she shoved The Cars, Peter Gabriel and Widespread Panic down our throats. When a new trend came out showing audience erosion, she would change the music by adding stranger stuff and then more classic rock. There was no rhyme or reason to what she did or when she did it. On Rodney's blog, someone mentioned that DAVE-FM did a "Circle of Friends" with Wilco yet the station didn't even play Wilco. That is typical of Michelle Engle's programming.
Troone; you bring up some solid facts however, the jocks were told to "tone it down and not be yourself." Rich Sullivan is a bright and funny guy yet when he cracks the mike you can almost here the stop watch he has by his console because he knows he'll get in trouble if he talks for more than 30 seconds. MD Margot Smith had a creative show, "Dave After Tomorrow" and it was taken away. Mara is only herself when she does Radio Free Lunch. Acoustic Sunrise is a copy of Organic X and a poor one at that.
People who listen to AAA stations are passionate about their music. We don't have it as background noise; we participate. We are not casual music fans. If a group of DAVE-FM's P1's got together, you could conduct a music seminar. Michelle never got that.
One hopes with Mike Wheeler in charge, there will be better decisions.