Billing is all well and good, but listnership is down significantly compared to their competitors in the demographic. Has been ever since that change in '99.
As for the rest of it, all the excuses in the world don't account for the reality of the situation. What you're describing just proves my point, anyway. You claim that there's faster sharing of data (which is true) and that stations of the same format in the same company share data (which is also true), but that doesn't mean that they all have to use it in the same way, and when you look at playlists across the country, it's very apparent that they do. That's not because of faster data sharing or because musical tastes have become generic, it's because the companies designate specific genres of music for certain formats, and stations are not to deviate from those genres. There is no risk-taking anymore, there is no attempt to grab all of a demo instead of just the listeners within it who like pop or country or hip-hop. And God forbid they hire live, local talent who actually know the market and the music they like, that's just asking for way too much.
David, trust me, I wish what you're saying was correct. I wish with everything in me that radio hadn't made a conscious effort to implode. But they did, and they're succeeding. That's why I left while I still could. I refused to be a part of it. I create and do things correctly. I will not be a part of an industry's self-abortion. It was, unfortunately, the right decision to make, because every problem I predicted as far back as 1997 has come to fruition. Deny it all you want, but as these stations all die off, I won't even have to say "I told you so," because you'll already be thinking it.