Local bid still on for KOCE

Marisa O’Neil

Orange County’s only public broadcasting channel, KOCE, plans to stay

in the running to retain its broadcast license in an upcoming sale,

despite a split with co-bidder KCET, the local station’s president

said.

Representatives for the Los Angeles-based public broadcasting

channel, KCET, announced Monday that the channel and the KOCE

Foundation had mutually agreed to dissolve the partnership it had

forged to put in an $11-million bid to retain KOCE’s format.

KOCE President Mel Rogers said that he did not see the latest

development as a setback.

“The good news is that the [KOCE] Foundation is putting together a

stronger bid than originally proposed and has a chance of winning,”

Rogers said. “It’s not out of the question that we have a chance to

win.”

In its announcement, KCET cited a short lead time as the reason

the partnership did not work. The Coast Community College District,

which holds the license, requires all bids to be submitted

simultaneously on Oct. 8.

“It boils down to the fact that the new process Coast Community

College District implemented makes it virtually impossible for a

joint bid to get done in time,” said Barbara Goen, KCET’s senior vice

president of communications.

The KOCE-KCET joint bid was the lowest of five presented to the

college district board, which will decide the station’s fate at its

Oct. 15 board meeting. Representatives from the district have said

that, because of state budget cuts affecting colleges, they can no

longer afford the $1.7 million it spends annually to operate the

station.

The two highest bidders are Costa Mesa’s Trinity Broadcasting

Network and Daystar Television Network of Dallas, each offering $25

million in cash. All of the four bidders besides KOCE are religious

broadcasters.

Rogers said that the KOCE Foundation is forming a bid to be

submitted by the Oct. 8 deadline. He said that it will use some

physical and intellectual property assets to come up with a bid

“quite a bit higher” than its original.

“The KOCE Foundation would be the designated purchaser of the

broadcast license and would, in effect, be buying it on behalf of the

people of Orange County,” he said.

Despite the KCET deal falling through, Rogers and Goen both said

the channels would consider future collaborations in programming,

management or operations.

“KCET has indicated that it is happy to assist the KOCE Foundation

in any way we can,” Goen said. “We are eager to be helpful as the

process unfolds.”

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

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