KOCE-TV Is Relocating to Santa Ana

Orange County’s PBS television station is moving to Santa Ana after spending 33 years on the campus of Golden West College in Huntington Beach.

KOCE-TV Channel 50 plans to move in August into the space left by the defunct Orange County NewsChannel in the Orange County Register’s headquarters, station President Mel Rogers said Friday.

The Public Broadcasting Service station has been in a no-man’s land since the Coast Community College District sold it in 2004 to the KOCE-TV Foundation, which is made up of business and community leaders.

The Daystar Television Network, a Christian broadcaster, said it had submitted a higher bid and sued. A state appeals court reversed the sale last year, calling it “the rankest form of favoritism.”

The court decided in July to review its decision, which is pending. In the meantime, the foundation has continued to operate the station. Rogers, who is also the foundation’s president, said the move would go forward regardless of the court’s decision. “This could be contested for years,” he said.

Rogers said a condition of the sale to the foundation was its move off the Golden West campus. The college does not have plans for the two buildings that house the station’s administration and its studio, said Martha Parham, a spokeswoman for the college district.

Rogers said that moving into OCN’s former space would minimize remodeling expenses because it was created for television. OCN closed in 2001.

Although KOCE will share space with the Register, Rogers said the two would operate independently. The biggest challenge may be figuring out how to continue broadcasting as equipment is moved, he said.

Rogers said the move is expected to cost several hundred thousand dollars.

He said terms of the lease, including its length and the cost, have not been finalized. The station pays the district about $60,000 annually.