Why did they pick Feb. 17, 2009 as the day to end analog broadcasting. making everything digital?

Question

http://www.dtvanswers.com/dtv_faqs.html#faq-about-4

Why did they pick a Tuesday in the middle of a month?

Answer 1

It of all things, has to deal with the calender year of the FCC and most federal agencies.  For their own bizarre internal purposes, the internal federal tax year starts on Feb. 17th.  As for 2009, it is typical for major policy changes to occur the federal tax year after a presidential election.  

Feb 17th is going to be a interesting day for amature radio operators.  When some analog transmitters go off that have been broadcasting continually for almost 20 years now, it will be very interesting to see how sidebands change.

Answer 2

I'm sure the conspiracy kooks would have a ridiculous answer, but I think they just picked a date.  It was mandated by law to go through, so they had to have a time line.  That just ended up being the date.