Huntington Beach : KOCE to Lay Off Six, Leaving a Staff of 50
Public television station KOCE, Channel 50, will lay off six of its employees by the end of July, William Furniss, president of the Huntington Beach station, said Tuesday.
The move will reduce the full-time staff to about 50 in the next fiscal year, he said.
“It is very regrettable that we have to do this,” he said. “Every year we have to look ahead and see what we can and cannot deal with in terms of staff.”
Furniss said the station’s budget is expected to be $5.5 million next year, down from about $6.1 million this year. The Coast Community College District, owner of the station, provides about $1 million, and the rest comes from federal grants, private fund drives and sales of services.
The station’s income has declined since community college budgets lost most of their local-tax base with the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. The full-time staff reached its peak of 94 employees in 1983 and has been reduced every year since then.
Furniss said that changes in projects and productions also contributes to the need for a staff reduction.
On May 7, the Coast Community College District board reversed its 1984 position and voted not to divest itself of the station’s federal license. But the board said that a condition of keeping the station is that “the role . . . shall be modified to focus on district educational programs.”
The district hopes to make the station into a “television academy” for community college students by the fall of 1987.
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