Christian broadcaster disputes KOCE sale

Marisa O’Neil

Coast Community College District’s board of trustees on Wednesday

night reexamined its decision to sell KOCE-TV to the station’s

fundraising arm in light of a legal challenge from a spurned bidder.

Trustees discussed, in closed session, a lawsuit threatened by

Daystar Television Network, which has drawn up the suit but not yet

filed, said Milford Dahl, attorney for the district. Daystar has said

that it, not the KOCE-TV Foundation, should have been declared the

highest responsible bidder and that it wants the district to allow it

to purchase the station’s license.

The district’s decision was not known by press time.

After an extensive bidding process with six bidders, the district

awarded the bid to the KOCE-TV Foundation -- the only nonreligious

broadcaster -- in October.

The California Education Code states that community college

districts may sell property “for cash” and must sell to the highest

responsible bidder. Daystar’s attorney, Richard Lloyd Sherman, said

that meant his client should have won.

“We were the highest bidder,” Sherman said. “We’re seeking to

essentially have Coast Community College District adjudicate that the

[KOCE-TV] Foundation was not the highest bidder.”

But Dahl said he had not found any precedent for defining the word

“cash” in that part of the code.

“I don’t see how we can [allow them to buy the station],” Dahl

said. “We’ve got other bidders, the [KOCE-TV] Foundation, the

Corporation for Public Broadcasting, who’ve all threatened to sue. We

can’t respond to one without responding to all of them.”

The KOCE-TV Foundation was the only one of three final bidders

that promised to keep the station’s public television format. Daystar

and other suitors involved earlier in the process -- Almavision

Hispanic Network, LeSEA Broadcasting Corporation and Trinity

Broadcasting -- all air religious programming.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has threatened to sue for

the return of roughly $20 million in grants and equipment if the

station’s format changes, Dahl said. Foundation members and even

members of KOCE-TV itself could also sue if the format changed

because they pledged money based on the expectation of public

broadcast programming.

Almavision, which came in with the highest bid at $35 million,

threatened to sue after the district rejected it, citing worries that

it did not have the money. The network never took any action, Dahl

said.

Daystar, however, recently sent the district a letter saying that

it had the highest cash bid at $25.1 million. The foundation offered

$8 million cash and $24 million on a long-term note.

“The suit says the Coast Community College District is in

violation of state law and has not complied with statutes regarding

the sale in two respects -- [the KOCE-TV Foundation] was not the

highest responsible bidder, and their bid was not cash,” Sherman

said. “They don’t have the discretion to pick and choose. They have

to pick the highest, and they violated that flagrantly.”

The district board of trustees gave the go-ahead to the sale in

December, allowing it to apply to the FCC for the broadcast license

transfer. Foundation members have promised to expand the station’s

role in the community as well as expand its educational and arts

programming.

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

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