Bidders Make a Play for KOCE

Financially strapped Orange County public television station KOCE, on the sales block for more than a year, suddenly has become the object of intense interest, raising the possibility that it could be sold to a religious buyer that would end its PBS and educational affiliation.

Alternatively, the station could be headed toward a merger with Los Angeles’ dominant public TV station, KCET, or with the San Diego public station, KPBS, both of which probably would mean consolidation of administrative functions but not programming.

The KOCE Foundation, a separate nonprofit organization that runs the station’s programming, also is making a play for the license.

The possible change comes at a time when consolidation among commercial media has been hotly debated, with critics charging that recent Federal Communications Commission rulings relaxing media ownership limits would reduce the number of local voices. But public TV, which has cast itself as the last bastion of localism, is grappling with funding issues as state and local governments, schools and corporate underwriters cut back.

KOCE license holder Coast Community College District hired an investment banking firm in February to solicit bids, which were due this month. KCET, KPBS and the KOCE Foundation said they bid; people familiar with the situation said several religious broadcasters also put in bids.

The school district is set to name the bidders Friday and then begin discussing the price and terms of payment.

The district has been searching for a buyer or merger partner for KOCE since May 2002, citing the high costs of a federally mandated conversion to digital broadcasting. Since then, added financial pressures in the district “make it much more difficult now to take resources away from our core mission of education,” spokeswoman Erin Cohn said.

The district contributes about $2 million of KOCE’s $8-million annual budget.

The board hired San Francisco investment bank Media Venture Partners because it “felt it was in the best interest of taxpayers

Any buyer would be required to maintain the station as a noncommercial entity but not necessarily as a public station.

Bob Brown, chairman of the KOCE Foundation, confirmed that his group put in a bid to “maintain KOCE-TV as an Orange County entity dedicated to education, culture, local issues and news and to maintain the PBS affiliation.”

He said there was “a lot of concern” among foundation board members about KOCE being sold to a religious broadcaster: “Orange County would lose the only TV available to us for Orange County issues.”

A successful KCET bid would mean a consolidation of public broadcasting in the Los Angeles area. But KCET President Al Jerome said, “We believe that we could enhance the service provided on public television to Orange County.”

KPBS, owned by San Diego State University, is “very interested in making sure that there’s good public television in our community of Southern California,” General Manager Doug Myrland said.