“The Drive” isn’t syndicated. It’s just a Clear Channel-owned brand that, depending on the city, plays Adult Alternative, Classic Rock, and sports talk.
Local radio’s dying out because in some cities, they’ve taken great local stations with a lot of history (like say… 101 KLOL in Houston), changed format to crap Tejano, and then opened up “The Eagle” elsewhere on the dial to hopefully get the classic rock crowd.
It’s hard to stay interested when they don’t even make an effort to try and appeal to you as a local listener.
Dallas has a few stations that are still local - 92.5 (classic rock), The Ticket (sports radio), and 97.1 (rock, local at least in the afternoons), but we also get syndicated crap like Ryan Seacrest, Kidd Kraddick (how does that work if he’s actually broadcasting from Dallas - is he local?) and all the usual conservative radio suspects as well.
Spent a few minutes looking; couldn’t find one. What I do know is that I’ve heard, in multiple markets across the country, a classic-rock station, with the name “The Eagle”, which use the same promotional announcer (the aforementioned “Theee Eeeeeeagle” guy). It might be a rather loose variety of syndicated programming. 
Here in Pittsburgh, it’s still going strong. (The X, KDKA, DVE, The Fan, etc.) You’d have a LOT of people getting pissed off if they couldn’t listen to the Steelers or the Penguins on the radio.
I have never liked morning Zoo type programming. In San Diego I basically listen to NPR, 91X which is a rock station that is local with out a lot of chit chat or 94.9 which is another local rock station with out a lot of chit chat. 91 X will have some commentary about local sports for a few minutes some days.
I’m listening to public music radio as we speak. Local college station has a variety of shows at night, mostly falling somewhere on the blues/jazz/soul spectrum but right now it’s an eclectic show with mostly rock, and does shows with mostly covers about once a month, just played an acoustic cover of Who Let the Dogs Out and is now playing an a capella version of some classic hard rock song.
The local public station where I volunteer DJ is getting some of its highest listening numbers in years. WTJU has a growing online listenership, but we still play mostly to a 50 mile radius in Central Virginia.
I like to think that our freeform radio format is interesting enough to keep local dials tuned. However, whether locally produced radio ultimately figures out how to adapt to the changing times or dies out is a pretty much an up-in-the-air question.
The generally dull programming on satellite radio allows a niche for interesting local programming for the foreseeable future, IMHO. I get to put together and play whatever I want on my show, and I try to focus on bizarre obscure music — much of which is unavailable elsewhere. People seem to respond. And hey, I can announce local weather too.
One of the reasons that local radio is dying out is that at least since the 1970s, except for public radio, local radio has been as shitty as hell. Local news on commercial radio stations is shallow, sparse, and sensational. Local deejays are morons. Morning shows are nothing but three hours of asshattery. Local commercials are badly done. Music playlists are stultifying.
Commercial public radio has been a disaster for at least 40 years. It’s amazing it lasted this long.
Public radio is still around because it’s the only thing that even tries to offer something good, and it is supported by listeners.
dkdc
One thing I’ve really enjoyed about driving cross country is tuning into the small market, local stations and getting a feel for the people and area from the songs, discussions and sometimes even the ads they play. They can be quite diverse and I think add appreciably to your sense of the place.
I just read a story about this. They haven’t officially said who will replace them (their last show is going to be May 17th), but rumor has it they’re bringing in Dave & Chuck the Freak, a duo who were on 89X until last fall.