Big Role for KOCE Viewers

The KOCE deal sounded a little too good to be true, and it was. With a $32-million offer to buy the station from the Coast Community College District, the nonprofit KOCE Foundation looked like it was solving everyone’s problems. The college district could take the highest valid bid to shore up its coffers, and Orange County could keep its public television station.

Now that the district board has accepted the bid and the final details emerge, the offer looks less attractive. The foundation will pay $8 million upfront. The district is giving the buyer millions in credit toward the purchase price, and allowing it decades to pay the remaining $17.5 million, at no interest. The payments start in five years. With inflation reducing the value, the college won’t be getting anything near $17.5 million in today’s dollars.

It’s a sweetheart deal. But the district also is doing the right thing for itself and the public.

The $6.5 million in credit is fully justified. The district would have had to reimburse PBS for $4 million in grants and equipment had it sold to one of the religious or other broadcasters. And now that it no longer owns the station, it has to pay for air time for its telecourses; that accounts for an additional $2.5 million.

The long-term payments with no interest are dicier. The district clearly loses on this part of the deal, not to mention the risk involved in a 30-year payout plan. Anything could happen in 30 years. But a sale that failed to keep the station in the public-TV universe would have faced its own risks. The Federal Communications Commission, which said the station’s license was for a public channel, could have held up the sale for years, and eventually rejected it. Public-TV supporters were threatening years more in court challenging the sale.

Many among the colleges’ faculty are disappointed. They hoped the sale would raise the maximum amount to offset state cuts. But the district’s colleges need that money now, not years from now, when the economy and state’s budget likely will be in better shape. The foundation sale means the quickest arrival of a badly needed $8-million cash infusion.

More important, the college district had its own debt to pay -- to the Orange County public, which for years has donated money at pledge time and throughout the year to keep a public TV station in town. Viewers didn’t give that money for it to become a religious station. Those have their own supporters.

Now the public will be called on to play an even bigger role keeping KOCE alive as a public station. The college district and a collection of big donors have done their part to make this deal work, as a service to viewers. It’s time for viewers to hold up their part of the bargain.

To find out about membership in KOCE, go to koce.org/membership.htm.