PRESS ROOM
Contact:Erin Cohn
District Director, Public Affairs
(714) 438-4605
Sale of KOCE Broadcasting License Finalized
The Coast Community College District Board of Trustees and the KOCE Foundation held a special presentation tonight to conclude the sale of Orange County’s public broadcasting station to the stations’ fundraising organization.
The Board voted last December to accept a $32 million bid for the KOCE-TV Channel 50 broadcasting license from the KOCE Foundation, a fundraising organization that has been working with the District and helping to support KOCE for decades. A final sale agreement between the Foundation and the District was approved in March which included an $8 million down payment from the Foundation, a $20 million note, as well as lease and programming agreements between the two organizations.
The agreement gave the Foundation until November 1 to come up with the down payment. In October, the KOCE Foundation announced it had secured the funding for the down payment, after a seven-month campaign to gather the required cash and pledges. On Monday, November 1, the Foundation wired the required down payment to the District, effectively making the sale final.
“This is a great day for Orange County,” said District Board President George Brown Wednesday night. “The finalization of this sale guarantees that Orange County will continue to have its own Public Broadcasting Station focused on the needs and the news unique to our county.
“I wish the KOCE Foundation continued success in maintaining and enhancing the station’s legacy as Orange County’s own educational PBS station.”
“Our Trustee Committee worked hard for many, many months to turn this sale into a reality, and I am thrilled and delighted that it has come to pass” said Trustee Jerry Patterson, who served with Brown on the Board’s KOCE committee. “It was important to our community, and to me personally, that KOCE remain an Orange County-based, educational PBS affiliate, qualified to receive Corporation for Public Broadcasting grants, now and in the future.”
“My thanks go out to many who were instrumental in making this happen, including KOCE Foundation members Bob Brown, Jerry Cwiertnia, Joel Slutzky and Ardelle St. George, along with many others. I would also give a huge thank you to our Coast District Vice Chancellor Ron Berggren and the District team including John Renley and Jeff Arthur. Truly, their tireless efforts are what kept the whole fabric of this transaction together,” Patterson said.
“The KOCE-TV Foundation Board is very excited that the lengthy license transfer process is now coming to a close,” said Bob Brown, chairman of the KOCE-TV Foundation. “We look forward to enhancing the value of this extremely important asset through expanded education, arts, culture and information for Orange County,” he added.
“The entire community owes a great debt to the KOCE-TV Foundation Board and the Coast District Trustees,” said Mel Rogers, KOCE president. “Together, they have hammered out a deal that will preserve Orange County’s truly local television station and enable it to flourish. Now the work really begins as we turn KOCE into a mission-driven media company that will unite Orange County, reveal and promote the OC spirit and lifestyle and reflect it throughout Southern California and the nation.”
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The Coast Community College District is the seventh largest community college district in the nation in credit enrollment, serving 60,000 students each semester. The district is comprised of Coastline Community College headquartered in Fountain Valley, Golden West College in Huntington Beach, Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, and KOCE-TV, the district’s public broadcasting station.
