Play is a good station wedged narrowly in a tremendously difficult competitive situation. I'm not sure if CBS thought their launch would stave off Cox from debuting a straight-ahead CHR and stealing their thunder, but in retrospect, they probably should have rolled out Play as a mainstream CHR from the get-go.
I don't believe Hot is doing anything particularly inventive. They essentially forced Tampa to accept them as a player by smack-talking MJ/FLZ and spending absurd amounts of money...neither of which were approaches exercised by CBS/Play. It worked, but that alone doesn't make the product amazing IMO. Play's morning drive show far outstrips Hot and Mix, and although I'm an FLZ fan, I'd argue that it's better than MJ at this point.
I wonder if Play needs to refocus musically. I love the idea of a CHR-formatted station that focuses on adult material, but the niche they're catering to - somewhere in between Hot AC and CHR - might be too narrow. Mix's pure Hot AC strategy is working, and part of that is playing a much wider library than Play (although Mix almost verges on being all-over-the-place). Hot has found success with a limited playlist - actually, I think a 64-song playlist is completely ridiculous - but you can get away with that with a more rhythmic, younger-skewing CHR format.
This post meandered a little bit, but in summary, I hope Play sticks around because it frankly deserves better. Out of the four stations competing most closely - Mix, Play, FLZ, and Hot - I feel FLZ and Play have the most programming richness. Of course, if CBS doesn't spend Cox-esque money to get the word out, which it doesn't seem they are, that inhibits them immediately.
