Not quite sure I buy that argument. It would really depend I think on quality of digital radio. Is it CD quality, MP3 quality, WMA quality, or worse?
I'd gotten the impression that it would be close to CD quality, so your analogy of recording off a tv station would only hold if you could somehow manage to record DVD quality.
I think the implementation of the recording feature would also determine how much of a threat it would be seen as. If they provided easy control for snipping off the commercials (are there commercials on digital radio or do the service fees let them go commercial free?), like the commercial skip option on VCRs or just "silent" dubbing to remove unwanted portions, then you'd be able to record CD quality, unadulterated songs.