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.