"Digital Audio Broadcasting Systems and Their Impact on the
Terrestrial Radio Broadcast Service "

15. We will not establish a deadline for radio stations to convert
to digital broadcasting. Stations may decide if, and when, they will
provide digital service to the public. Several reasons support this
decision. First, unlike television licensees, radio stations are under
no statutory mandate to convert to a digital format. Second, a hard
deadline is unnecessary given that DAB uses an in-band technology that
does not require the allocation of additional spectrum. Thus, the
spectrum reclamation needs that exist for DTV do not exist here.
Moreover, there is no evidence in the record that marketplace forces
cannot propel the DAB conversion forward, and effective markets tend
to
provide better solutions than regulatory schemes.

16. iBiquity argues that in the early stages of the transition,
the
Commission should favor and protect existing analog signals. It states
that this could be accomplished by limiting the power level and
bandwidth occupancy of the digital carriers in the hybrid mode. At
some
point in the future, when the Commission determines there is
sufficient
market penetration of digital receivers, iBiquity asserts that the
public interest will be best served by reversing this presumption to
favor digital operations. At that time, broadcasters will no longer
need to protect analog operations by limiting the digital signal and
stations should have the option to implement all-digital broadcasts.
We
decline to adopt iBiquity's presumption policy because it is too early
in the DAB conversion process for us to consider such a mechanism. We
find that such a policy, if adopted now, may have unknown and
unintended consequences for a new technology that has yet to be
accepted by the public or widely adopted by the broadcast industry.

http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-IMPA...-15/i15922.htm

Don't let any IBOC-shills tell you otherwise!