Frequently Asked Questions
About
The Future of KOCE
Despite record viewership and improved local community services, KOCE is facing serious challenges to its future as a local institution serving local educational, cultural and community information needs.
As you may have heard, a California Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling, deciding the process by which the Coast District sold KOCE to the KOCE-TV Foundation was flawed and the sale should be voided. The legal action was brought by an out-of-state religious broadcast network that covets KOCE’s channel and its coverage throughout Southern California.
The court took a very narrow interpretation of the law which permits college districts to sell surplus property such as unneeded desks or vehicles. However, a public television station is not a desk or a surplus pick-up truck. KOCE is a non-profit institution whose license is held by the KOCE-TV Foundation on behalf of the people it serves. In a sense, KOCE has been purchased collectively by its viewers throughout Orange County and Southern California by tens of millions of dollars of their contributions during the last thirty-five years. This station belongs to you. It is important that you make your voice heard about the future of your PBS station in Orange County and the rest of Southern California.
How You Can Help
Communicate to the trustees of the Coast Community College District the importance of keeping KOCE a local PBS station meeting local needs.
At this time, the College District Trustees are being threatened with lawsuits by the religious broadcast network that wants to own the station. The KOCE Foundation does not oppose religious broadcasters. However, we strongly believe that KOCE serves a vital community need in Orange County and reaches millions of viewers beyond Orange County. It is a community asset we cannot afford to lose.
Click Here for Contact Information for the Coast District Trustees
Another immediate crisis is the threat in the United States Congress to reduce the portion of PBS and NPR stations’ budgets that is allocated in the form of Community Service Grants. The House Appropriations Committee has indicated it will drastically cut and eventually phase out such funding, threatening the existence of many public stations. Congress has tried to do this before. In each instance, the American people have risen up and stopped them. We need you to rise up again on our behalf.
How You Can Help
Please contact your local Congessional Representative and members of The House Appropriations Committee about the importance of preserving the only system of television stations that exist to serve and not to sell. Tell them that cuts to our funding will eliminate many stations and serious impair the ability of other stations to educate children, inform the citizenry with dignified rational debates and reports, and provide an ongoing civilizing media influence that must be preserved in our democracy.
Click Here to Contact Your Local Senators About This Issue
Click Here to Contact Your Local Representative About This Issue
Click Here to Contact the Chair of the Appropriations Committee
We are only as strong as our support from you. Our future is in your hands. I know you won’t let us down.
Mel Rogers
President, KOCE-TV
