Students urge no sale of KOCE

Marisa O’Neil

The Academic Senate of Golden West College passed a resolution on

Tuesday urging the Coast Community College District Board of Trustees

to vote against selling KOCE, Orange County’s only public

broadcasting channel.

The vote came a day after the L.A.-based public broadcasting

channel KCET-TV announced 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.

Five bidders -- four religious channels and the KOCE Foundation --

are still in the running to buy the station’s broadcast license from

Coast Community College District. Erin Cohn, spokesperson for the

district, said the station costs nearly $2 million a year to operate,

something the district can’t afford with recent budget cuts.

The Golden West resolution states that the channel’s potential to

deliver courses, such as the telecourses currently broadcast on KOCE,

had been “largely untapped.” It asks the board trustees to consider

the big picture for KOCE, which is based at the college’s campus.

“The current assessments performed on the sale of KOCE are

primarily based on the past performance and current budget shortfall

and no evaluation of future benefits of KOCE,” the resolution stated.

Coast Community College District board member Jerry Patterson said

that the telecourses offered through Coastline College could be

affected by the sale of KOCE.

“If the station sold, if would be up in the air,” he said. “If we

sold it to a PBS station, we would more likely be able to do it. If

we sold it to a religious broadcaster, that raises legal and

political issues. It would at best limit the time we could offer the

telecourses.”

All the bids submitted include provisions to allow the courses to

be broadcast, Cohn said, and in the future, there will be a shift to

having courses on DVD, the Internet and on separate digital channels,

possibly including Golden West and Orange Coast College courses.

Only homes that have digital televisions and cable would have

access to expanded programming, however. Until then, the courses

would be broadcast after hours on the same channel.

If a religious broadcaster buys KOCE, legal and political issues

may arise that the district board will have to consider, she said.

Right now, the courses are available on KOCE through cable, but the

majority of viewers see it via antenna broadcasts.

“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. Coast Community College District, which

holds the license, requires all bids to be submitted simultaneously

on Wednesday.

“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,” Barbara Goen, KCET’s senior vice

president of communications, said.

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

district, which will decide the station’s fate at its Oct. 15

meeting. Representatives from the district have said that, because of

state budget cuts affecting colleges, the district 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, which are each

offering $25 million in cash.

The KOCE Foundation is forming a new bid to be submitted by the

Oct. 8 deadline, that will use some physical and intellectual

property assets to come up with a bid “quite a bit higher” than their

original, Rogers said.

“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 is a reporter who covers education for Times

Community News. She may be reached at (949) 574-4268 or by e-mail at

[email protected].