KOCE-TV will stay a public station

Marisa O’Neil

Trustees for the Coast Community College District agreed Wednesday

night to accept and pursue the KOCE-TV Foundation’s bid to purchase

the station’s license, effectively keeping it a public broadcasting

channel.

The vote was 4 to 1.

Supporters for Orange County’s only public broadcasting station

and some for Almavision Hispanic Network filled Orange Coast

College’s Robert B. Moore Theatre for the long-awaited vote, which

allows KOCE’s foundation to begin negotiations to purchase the

broadcast license from the Coast Community College District. A board

subcommittee announced Tuesday that it was recommending the

foundation as the highest responsible bidder.

Trustees Paul Berger, George Brown, Walter Howald and Jerry

Patterson all voted to pursue the foundation bid. Armando Ruiz voted

against it.

Representatives for hopefuls Almavision and Pappas Telecasting

spoke to the board before the vote in a last-ditch attempt to sway

their opinion. An Almavision representative said its treasurer had a

check for $35 million ready to give the board.

Almavision submitted the high bid of $35 million cash before the

final Oct. 8 deadline, but the two trustees on the subcommittee,

Brown and Patterson, said in their report they did not find

sufficient proof that the network had the money. KOCE-TV’s $32

million offer -- $8 million cash and the remainder in a long-term

note -- was the next-highest.

The KOCE Foundation’s bid, submitted just before the Oct. 8

deadline, was substantially larger than its initial bid of $10

million, made in conjunction with Los Angeles PBS affiliate KCET.

After that partnership dissolved because of time constraints, some of

Orange County’s heavy hitters in business, education and the

community lent their support.

“I haven’t run into any CEO in Orange County who wasn’t

unequivocal in support for KOCE,” Dwight Decker, chairman and CEO of

Conexant said to the district board shortly before the vote.

KOCE has not released the names behind the sweetened bid, but at a

press conference last week, Decker, Broadcom Chairman Henry Samueli,

Allergan President David Pyott and former baseball commissioner Peter

Ueberroth voiced their desires to keep the station as it is.

Because of state budget cuts, new accounting requirements and the

cost to upgrade the station to a digital format, the Coast Community

College District decided to sell the station, which a spokesperson

estimated costs $2 million a year to run.

The KOCE-TV Foundation was the only suitor promising to keep the

station’s format, which includes broadcasting courses to 10,000 Coast

Community College District students, KOCE Foundation board member

Joel Slutzky said. The other four bidders in the original round were

all religious broadcasters.

Daystar Television Network and Costa Mesa’s Trinity Broadcasting

Network had the highest initial bids, at $25 million cash. Trinity

withdrew its offer before the Oct. 8 deadline, and Daystar submitted

a revised proposal of $40 million, but it was after the last

deadline. LeSEA Broadcasting Corp. of Louisiana offered $10 million

cash and $15 million on terms in the initial round, but also withdrew

its proposal.

Pappas Television submitted a $25-million offer but, the

subcommittee said, it came in after the initial deadline and would

not be considered.

The district will now enter talks with the KOCE-TV Foundation to

sell the station. They will have to vote on any final contracts

forged.