Foundation makes new, higher bid

Marisa O’Neil

KOCE-TV’s foundation announced Wednesday that it is submitting an

“extremely competitive” bid to buy the station and retain its format

with the help of local business leaders and former baseball

commissioner and once recall candidate Peter Ueberroth.

Surrounded by half a dozen CEOs from some of Orange County’s

biggest companies at a press conference, KOCE Foundation board member

Joel Slutzky said that the new bid would be significantly higher than

the $10 million originally submitted to the Coast Community College

District, who holds KOCE’s broadcast license. Four religious channels

have already submitted bids as high as $25 million, but the KOCE

Foundation is the only one that has promised to keep it a public

broadcasting channel.

“I don’t think you should change what KOCE does in the public

arena,” said Ueberroth, an Orange County resident who pulled out of

the California gubernatorial race last month. “This community needs

this asset in its current form. Don’t change something that’s part of

the public community.”

The foundation’s new offer comes just in time as bidding closed at

the end of the day Wednesday.

The previous bid, entered jointly with L.A.-based PBS affiliate

KCET-TV, fell apart last week due to time constraints. Details of the

revised bid have not been released, but KOCE President Mel Rogers

said that it includes more cash up front and a higher net -- and

possibly higher gross -- bid than the others submitted so far.

Rogers credited community support for the strengthened bid.

“Some of the most important business and financial leaders in

Orange County are making a point to come together and put together

the best bid for the Coast Community College District,” he said.

Matt Massengill, CEO of Western Digital Corp., said that when

taking into consideration costs of transferring the station’s

license, including repayment of debts, PBS grants and employee

severance packages, other bidders would have to pay off approximately

$12.27 million. That would effectively halve the high bids from Costa

Mesa’s Trinity Broadcasting Network and Daystar Television Network of

Dallas unless they agreed to pay the costs on top of the selling

price.

The time it would take to gain FCC approval to transfer the

license could also significantly add to the costs, Massengill said.

Taking that into consideration, he said, the foundation’s bid should

be at least on par, if not superior, to the others.

Slutzky, who is also CEO of Odetics Corporation, called KOCE “an

irreplaceable community asset,” citing it as one of the top 15 PBS

outlets in the country with 4 1/2-million viewers a month, including

10,000 Coast Community College District students who enroll in

telecourses broadcast by the station each semester.

If KOCE can keep the license, the station plans to expand its

programming in a digital format, offering more local news,

educational programming and creative content, possibly partnering

with the local arts, like South Coast Repertory Theatre, Rogers said.

Coast Community College District has cited budget problems as a

major reason they want to sell the station, which costs them just

under $2 million to operate each year.

A recent survey conducted by the Orange County Business Council

and Cal State Fullerton showed that 82% of Orange County residents

supported keeping KOCE a local public broadcasting entity, even if it

meant accepting a lower bid. Foundation representatives distributed

copies of a letter signed by 55 prominent Orange County business

leaders and residents, including the Joan Irvine Smith family and UC

Irvine Chancellor Ralph Cicerone, asking the district to keep the

station as a public station.

“We wouldn’t be sitting here if we weren’t concerned with the

future of KOCE,” Henry Samueli, chairman and CTO of Broadcom Corp.

said at the press conference. “We can make this successful and we

will make this successful and will rally support in the community.”

The district is due to decide the station’s fate at its board of

trustees meeting Wednesday at Orange Coast College’s Robert B. Moore

Theatre. No details of any of the revised bids will be released until

that meeting.

District spokesperson Erin Cohn said that she expected that all

the active bidders would submit revised proposals but could not go

into further detail.

Christian broadcasters Almavision Hispanic Network and LeSEA

Broadcasting Corp. had also submitted bids in the original round.