FCC Requirements for Television Station Log

The FCC rules relating to station logs for television broadcast stations are copied below. Entries that are required by the rules are highlighted in red.

§ 11.35 Equipment operational readiness. § 11.54 EAS operation during a National Level emergency. § 11.55 EAS operation during a State or Local Area emergency. § 11.61 Tests of EAS procedures. § 73.1225 Station inspections by FCC. ... § 73.1226 Availability to FCC of station logs and records.

The following shall be made available to any authorized representative of the FCC upon request:

§ 73.1800 General requirements related to the station log. § 73.1820 Station log. § 73.1835 Special technical records.

The FCC may require a broadcast station licensee to keep operating and maintenance records as necessary to resolve conditions of actual or potential interference, rule violations, or deficient technical operation.

§ 73.1840 Retention of logs. § 73.1870 Chief operators.

The F.C.C. EAS TV (including Digital TV) Handbook requires licensees to make entries in the station log:

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Copied from http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/bickel/noonehome.html

Unattended Operation of Radio and Television Broadcast Stations

Q10: Station Log: Should out-of-tolerance conditions and corrective actions to the transmitting equipment be recorded in the station log?

A: Yes.
The station should take care to record each failure, out-of-tolerance condition, or corrective action (including calibration of automatic devices) made to the transmission system equipment, including monitoring and control devices. See 47 CFR Section 73.1820(a) and (a)(1).

Directional AM stations without an approved sampling system (See 47 CFR Section 73.68) must also log the additional data called for in 47 CFR Section 73.1820(a)(2) at least every three hours.

Sections 73.1800 and 73.1820 state that the entries in the station log should be made by the person designated by the licensee to take charge of the transmitting equipment. Automatic equipment may be used to record entries for the station, provided that the requirements of 47 CFR Section 73.1820(b) are met by the recording device. Station logs must be kept at least 2 years. See 47 CFR Section 73.1840 for additional information regarding retention of station logs.

EAS activations, and EAS equipment taken out of service for repairs, must be logged each time. See 47 CFR Sections 11.35 and 11.53(b)(14). . FM and TV translator and booster stations are not required to comply with the EAS requirements of Part 11. For more information concerning EAS, please see the Internet pages at http://www.fcc.gov/eb/eas/.

Log entries must be made of any malfunction or extinguishment of tower lighting, or any notification made to the FAA of the same, and a log entry should be made when normal functioning resumes. See 47 CFR Sections 17.48, 17.49, and 73.1820 (or 47 CFR Section 74.734 for low power TV stations and TV translator and booster stations, or 47 CFR Section 74.1234 for FM translator and booster stations). Visual observations to verify proper operation of the tower lighting must be made once a day, unless an automatic alarm system is installed to notify the station of any malfunction (see 47 CFR Section 17.47). While daily observations are no longer required to be logged, we strongly suggest that the station do so.

For FM, TV, and most AM stations, changes to and readings of metering equipment are not required to be logged. However, AM directional stations without an approved sampling system must log the meter data called for in 47 CFR Section 73.1820(b)(2) every three hours. Operating and Maintenance Logs for Broadcast and Broadcast Auxiliary Stations, BC Docket 82-537, 54 RR 2d 805 (1983).


Closed captioning monitoring and maintenance

Television stations must maintain records of closed captioning monitoring and maintenance. These entries are not explicitly required to be made in the station log.
§ 79.1 Closed captioning of televised video programming

(c) (3) Each video programming distributor shall maintain records of the video programming distributor's monitoring and maintenance activities, which shall include, without limitation, information about the video programming distributor's monitoring and maintenance of equipment and signal transmissions to ensure the pass through and delivery of closed captioning to viewers, and technical equipment checks and other activities to ensure that captioning equipment and other related equipment are maintained in good working order. Each video programming distributor shall maintain such records for a minimum of two years and shall submit such records to the Commission upon request.


CALM Act

The rules [§ 73.682 (e)] implementing the CALM Act require a television station to be able to provide these records: If there is a complaint, the station must certify that it has no actual knowledge of a violation of A/85 (or that any violation of which it has become aware has been promptly corrected), and further certify that its own transmission equipment is not at fault for any pattern or trend of complaints.

As these records are "required ... elsewhere in this part [§ 73.1820(a)(1)(ii)]," they must be entered in the station log.


Here is a blank template for a station log for a television station:
log_sample.doc (Word document)
(This form is suitable for a station that does not own the tower. The owner of the tower is responsible for log entries regarding malfunction or extinguishment of tower lighting.)
John Neuhaus, john@jneuhaus.com