Huntington Beach : Supervisors OK $25,000 Grant for Station KOCE

Public television station KOCE’s request for a $25,000 matching grant was approved Tuesday by the county Board of Supervisors.

The grant, only the second given the station by county supervisors, was recommended by Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder to help alleviate the fiscal plight of the Huntington Beach-based station.

In recent years, KOCE’s fiscal support from other sources has dwindled, especially from the station’s owner, the Coast Community College District. The station’s annual budget, $7.9 million three years ago, is expected to total about $4.5 million for 1986-87.

The grant approved Tuesday is for $25,000 in federal revenue-sharing funds disbursed by the county. The grant is contingent on KOCE’s raising another $25,000 from other sources, station President William Furniss said.

In 1976 the supervisors approved $20,000 in federal Housing and Community Development funds to help underwrite a KOCE special, “The $80,000 Game,” about the rising cost of county housing.

Wieder said she was backing the new $25,000 request since KOCE is a “public service” institution that devotes much of its programming to such countywide issues as transportation and election campaigns.

Furniss said the station expects to use the new grant mostly for public affairs ventures, including live “phone-in” programs on societal problems and “Jim Cooper’s Orange County” weekly interview-panel show.