Seems to me they would have benefitted from what WQDR did in the Triangle.
First, WQDR has a strong product which is live all day and "of" that market. Playing musical chairs with PDs (like sending Trey to Raleigh), trying to cover WTQR from Charlotte and with no real passion is not working.
Second, market, market and then market some more to defend your turf. WRDU spent a bloody fortune advertising JB&B instead of the station and now they have missed their moment in time. There is no way with these budget cuts that CCU will keep spending on that lame experiment in Raleigh when they know that Don Curtis will just spend double what they do AND have a better product. Those spots WTQR came up with featuring their morning show are just lame and was not the battleground against WPAW.
Third, don't change your on-air product and positioning in the face of new competition. WTQR was there first, and they should have defended their turf. Instead, they let WPAW come under them on the younger end and steal the "hip" position.
There are definitive reasons why WTQR is getting killed compared to WPAW with A25-54, while WQDR continues to be the dominant player in Raleigh while WRDU is barely sniffing a 2.0 share and is ranked below any one of the three sports stations in the market against A25-54.
Toby, Angie and others are a great group of broadcasters who have been completely hamstrung by their corporate programming "geniuses".