KOCE-TV must remain the public voice of Orange County
What would you do if our Orange County quality of life were
threatened? What if the threat negatively impacted our homeland
security by eliminating real-time news and emergency information
about our local neighborhoods, towns and cities? What if that threat
included a reduction in local educational tools for Orange County
kindergarten through 12th-grade students, less teacher training, an
elimination of access to timely local information about business,
community government, local arts and our important local nonprofit
causes? What if that threat would remove from us the ability to see
the faces of local elected officials and hear their issues? What if
the threat affected the very identity of Orange County and its
distinction as a place different from Los Angeles?
Tragically, the threat exists. Amid the politics of state budget
deficits and economic crises, one tragic outcome could be the loss to
Orange County of its PBS station, KOCE-TV. The station’s owner, the
Coast Community College District, has put the station up for sale
after more than three decades of service to Southern California. The
highest bids have been tendered by large, religious broadcasters.
For Orange County, the impact could be devastating. KOCE is Orange
County’s only television voice. It is the only station that, although
also viewed in Los Angeles, focuses on Orange County. It regularly
provides education services for kindergarten through 12th-grade
classrooms and higher educational for-credit courses used by many
thousands of students and teachers. In recent years, KOCE has emerged
as the only broadcast television station covering Orange County news,
issues, people and events ignored by Los Angeles’ commercial
television stations. KOCE, through its production of “Real Orange,”
Orange County election specials, “Bookmark,” “Help Me Grow,” “Sound
Effects,” “Mendez vs. Westminster” and its broadcast of other locally
produced shows such as Boy Monk and the Little Saigon Lunar New Year
Festival, has helped provide and voice and an identity for Orange
County. As a result, KOCE’s audience has been growing, and its
operating budget has increased.
Despite its growth and success, the expensive but federally
mandated requirement that all stations convert to digital television
has placed KOCE in debt, something the district can’t afford during
these difficult fiscal times.
The KOCE Foundation, a private nonprofit corporation, has for many
years helped sustain and support the station through various
fundraising activities. Its efforts have been focused on helping to
fund the digital conversion and sustain its annual fund. It is
limited in its ability to place a sizable bid before the Coast
District Trustees. As the directors of the KOCE Foundation, we know
the importance of KOCE to our communities, including our older
citizens who, without Orange County public television would lose the
only station that uses a portion of its broadcast week meeting the
needs of those not served by youth-oriented commercial television.
The solution is two-fold. First, local citizens must remind the
Coast District trustees that, as holders of a broadcast license,
their responsibility extends throughout the station’s viewing area
and does not stop at the Coast District borders. The trustees must be
encouraged to consider the impact of their decision on Orange County
business, education, the arts and homeland security. (Remember that
on 9/11, Los Angeles TV news reporters did not venture into Orange
County. Only KOCE told us the impact of events on our schools,
airport and freeways and gave a voice to the local American Muslim
community, helping maintain an even keel during the crisis.) And
while kindergarten through 12th-grade education is not the mission of
a community college district, the trustees should be encouraged to
consider that KOCE has helped teach millions of students over the
years and has provided training to thousands of our teachers. To
abandon all that in deference to the highest bidder seems less than
responsible.
To contact the Coast District Trustees and express your opinion,
write to: Board of Trustees, Coast Community College District, 1370
Adams Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.
Secondly, any place with the public and private wealth that exists
in Orange County should be able to rise up and help insure the
station’s long term existence here. The people and businesses of
Orange County must do what they can to assist those bidders who would
sustain the station’s local public service mission. If you can help,
please contact the KOCE Foundation. Presently, we have merged our bid
with KCET to form a new venture to better compete with the money
offered by religious broadcasters. We see this as a positive solution
because it assures that both KOCE and KCET will be public television
stations charged with serving their respective communities. This
partnership would maintain KOCE’s focus on education and Orange
County news and information. It also offers many collaborative
operation efficiencies.
KOCE needs the people and leaders of Orange County to step up and
support us.
We believe our continued success, our quality of life, and our
identity as a populace distinct from Los Angeles depends on our
success in saving KOCE-TV. If you can help, contact the KOCE
Foundation: 15751 Gothard St., Huntington Beach, CA 92647.
BOB BROWN
KOCE-TV Foundation
Board of Directors
Huntington Beach
* EDITOR’S NOTE: The KOCE Foundation Board of Directors includes:
Dee Balle, Marian Bergeson, Bob Brown, Clarence Brown, Peggy
Goldwater Clay, John Crean, Jerry Cwertnia, Dwight Decker, the Rev.
Father James Everman, Samuel Goldstein, Todd E Hollander, Carol
Jones, Martha Fluor, Russ Leatherby, Jack Lindquist, Mary Lyons,
Betty Mower, Michael Ray, Ardelle St. George, Jaqueline Schaar, Joel
Slutzky, Jeff Stroud and Dan Werbin.
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