KOCE Can Retain Autonomy : Television: PBS’ chief says that while the network would like programming uniformity, it will not be binding on local stations.

The Public Broadcasting System’s top executive said Thursday that the network will not shackle local public television stations with a nationally controlled prime-time schedule in the 1991-92 season, a sign that bodes well for Orange County’s KOCE Channel 50.

Although PBS officials announced last summer a plan to encourage network stations to air programs more uniformly, PBS chief Bruce L. Christensen, who visited KOCE Thursday night, said there are no plans to make mandatory what some in the industry call “same-night carriage.”

“We’re not thinking of making it a requirement,” though the policy is recommended so that local stations may benefit from national promotion and underwriting, said Christensen, PBS president and chief executive officer.

Although the national coordination plan would benefit PBS affiliates that have a market to themselves, it was criticized by some second-line affiliates that share a broadcast area with a major-market station, as KOCE in Huntington Beach does with KCET Channel 28 in Los Angeles.

To garner and maintain an audience that now numbers about 1.5 million, KOCE has long provided viewers with programming alternatives to KCET, its larger, Los Angeles-based neighbor whose signal blankets all of Orange County.

Often KOCE runs different programs (including some public-affairs shows it produces) than KCET or the same programs at different times.

“I’d rather have a schedule we can tailor to our audience,” KOCE President William A. Furniss said Thursday.

Christensen, who was here to attend a reception at which KOCE announced some 1991 programming, added that feedback from local stations across the country has been positive to the current process, which gives individual stations greater programming flexibility.