Well, here's my 2 cents worth.
If you're gonna play rock and go after the 25-29 demo, why wouldn't you pick the brains of some of the talent on your staff that worked at the old Kiss FM and make The Mountain a Kiss clone? You couldn't call it that (of course), but the reverb in the audio chain and the "bigger than life" sound could be mimicked. Plus, you would be unique on the air. That was always what the old Kiss had going for it...no other CHR/Rock station of that era had their sound and presentation. Some local "attitude" radio (without the sleaze) would play well in Buncombe County again. Wonder why they won't let Chuck Finley have a shot at that? He knows the market (heck, he's worked in it for over 20 years) and he was part of the Kiss FM heyday. If we're gonna dream, bring back John Stevens, Dawn, GT, Pat Garrett and the rest of the gang. I know Saga won't go that far, but they could get the sound right for sure...and they already have 1/2 of the Kiss Wake-Up Crew on their staff.
However, I think I read on the board a while back that Chuck was leaving WOXL (or being asked to leave), but he is still on their Website. So what do you think? Give him a shot, and he "should" be able to take down 104.9 and maybe even eat into Star 104.3's numbers a bit.
(Disclaimer...I don't keep in touch with Chuck personally, but I always liked his and John Stevens' work on-air. They were tight, funny and relevant to what was happening in Western North Carolina at the time. We worked together for a bit while I was at Kiss in 1985, and Chuck always made fun of me because I had come from WTOE in Spruce Pine (but he neglected to mention on-air that he was a 'TOE alumnus also. I left to go back to a full-time gig at WTOE in November of that year. Chuck left for a gig in Memphis (I believe) not long after I went to work at Kiss and was replaced by Kent Compton, who drove into Asheville to do the show with John from Spartanburg every day.)
wncmacs