"Telamon" wrote in message
...
Plus: If a smaller station can't afford multiple program, then they
don't need to do anything. They can just limit themselves
to 1 high-quality channel (300 kbps).

Gee, maybe if some independant station can't afford multiple
programming,
they'll have even have trouble justifying buying the IBOC hardware.

It's not that expensive. No more expensive than a mono to stereo
upgrade for an FM station.

Really. Just how expensive is it?

I'm pretty sure that the IBOC hardware (and the license to use it) costs
considerably more than the $1000 it takes to buy a stereo encoder for a
commercial FM station.. For that matter, a pretty good quality stereo
encoder can be bought for $200 from some of the companies that supply LPFM
and (gasp!) pirate operators. Going stereo on FM doesn't take any
modification to the transmitter itself, just a piece of outboard gear in the
audio chain. IBOC requires modifications to the transmitter (plus the
station loses all it's SCA's.. which are a good source of additional INCOME,
especially for small and/or public radio stations.)