I don't want to sound too negative but I think converting this way is also not easy because if you don't have all needed icons you'll lose info on the way, or would need to stuff it into some textual info for the time being.
Seeing as it helps me to understand the idea, breaking it apart into a step by step list and typing it out helps here...
Maybe the conversion could happen this way:
- decide on a basic text layout (which info is needed or wanted and where to put it (preset number, preset name, frequency, fmr, radio art and so on)
- what info should be displayed as icons and in which place (replacing some other icon in the "statusbar" or not)
- design the icons
As for the peakmeter idea: you can use them in the radio screen now but you won't see them move in an software codec target radio screen - and they'll show both channels currently, although someone could notice if both bars move exactly the same in mono. I also think that it would look very weird if the station has bad reception and mono/stereo changes (someone would probably switch to another or will set "force mono" but even though this would end the icon discussion, I don't think that's a nice solution).