Students back top bidder for KOCE-TV

Marisa O’Neil

Orange County residents and college students appear to have differing

hopes for the fate of the county’s only public broadcasting station.

The Coast Community College District, which owns KOCE, will decide

Oct. 15 whether the channel will retain its public broadcasting

format or be sold to one of four Christian broadcasting networks. A

recent survey showed that 82% of Orange County residents want it to

stay a PBS channel, but a trustee for the Associated Students of

Orange Coast College said students support a sale that would help

financially strapped colleges in the district.

“We would like the board to find a compromise which would allow

enough money for at least temporary reinstatement of core classes and

take into consideration the community and employees at KOCE,”

Associated Students trustee Zachary Liberman said. “Our main point is

that the bylaws state that the mission of Coast Community College

District is to provide education for students. It doesn’t say

anything about a television station.”

Liberman said that budget cuts to schools and the resulting

canceling of classes at OCC have made the sale necessary. OCC has cut

about 1,300 class sections in the past three semesters.

The Associated Students has been circulating petitions and

mobilizing students on campus.

District spokesperson Erin Cohn said that the amount of the sale

would determine how the proceeds would be used.

“Obviously, the first priority would be to restore classes,” Cohn

said. “As it stands now, students are being turned away.”

The Coast Community College District has five bidders for KCET,

including four religious programmers -- Daystar Television, Trinity

Broadcasting, Almavision Hispanic Network and LeSEA Broadcasting

Corporation. Daystar and Trinity have each bid $25 million.

The lowest bid is from the KOCE Foundation and Los Angeles PBS

station KCET. They have offered $10 million, with $1 million down.

In a survey released by Cal State Fullerton and the Orange County

Business Council on Tuesday, 82% of Orange County residents said they

would prefer that KOCE remain a public broadcasting entity, even if

it meant accepting a smaller sale price. According to the survey, 53%

of respondents who said they watch religious programming also

supported keeping the station in its current format.

“I think that there’s a sense of ownership for the public with

KOCE,” said Phillip Gianos, Cal State Fullerton political science

professor. “And I think they considered the mix of programming

available. They may not find another religious programming station as

attractive if it comes at the cost of losing Orange County’s only PBS

station.”

The Coast Community College District pays $1.8 million a year to

run the station, KOCE President Mel Rogers said. Grants and

fund-raisers -- such as pledge drives -- cover the remaining $8

million in operating costs.

KOCE also faces an estimated $8.5 million upgrade to a digital

format, as required by the FCC.

“Coast Community College District just doesn’t have the kind of

budget to allow KOCE to become all they could be in this digital

environment,” Cohn said.

Coast Community College District, which includes Orange Coast

College, Golden West College and Coastline College, has owned KOCE

for the past 30 years. According to the station’s Web site, it has

won 24 L.A.-area Emmy Awards.

Rogers said that they are still operating and still seeking

supporters.

“We’re approaching this with a positive attitude,” Rogers said.

“We hope and fully expect a decision to be made for us to continue to

serve Orange County as a PBS station. I think it’s increasingly

important for this county to have some electronic media that pays

attention to it.”

Orange Coast College will host a public debate, “To Sell or Not to

Sell: A Debate on the Future of KOCE” at 7 p.m. Oct. 7 in the Student

Center Lounge. The event is sponsored by OCC’s United Student

Sociologists.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education and may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.