Religious Broadcaster Says KOCE Should Stay Public

The world’s largest religious broadcaster remains a bidder for Orange County’s only public television station, but said Wednesday it hopes KOCE-TV will remain a PBS affiliate instead.

TBN spokesman John Casoria said the televangelist organization hopes the KOCE-TV Foundation, which raises funds for Channel 50, acquires the station. “We think it would be a good thing for the county,” he said.

The foundation is the only one of five bidders promising to keep KOCE a PBS affiliate. The other four bidders, all religious broadcasters, have each offered about $25 million, under a variety of terms, for the Huntington Beach-based station owned by the Coast Community College District.

The issue before college trustees is whether to sell the station to the foundation for $10 million--and ensure it will remain a public television station -- or sell it for more than twice as much to a religious broadcaster. If that happens, TBN’s Casoria made it clear Wednesday that his organization wants KOCE for itself.

“If the trustees say we’re going to take the money [from the highest bidder] and run, we’ll still be in the bidding,” he said.

Foundation officials are hoping that trustees will be swayed by a lineup of influential Orange County civic leaders who say the county will best be served by keeping KOCE as a PBS affiliate, even if it means less money for the college district.

At one time, the foundation’s bid was in partnership with KCET TV Channel 28, Los Angeles’ public television station. KCET dropped out of the deal this week, saying it could not meet the deadline.

TBN officials met for the second time Monday with the foundation, to discuss how the two might work together.

Casoria said the two sides discussed legal issues and whether TBN could lend the foundation funds to buy KOCE, although “nothing came out of it. We were just batting about ideas.”

Joel Slutzky, a foundation spokesman, said he had no idea if the two sides could come to an agreement.

Casoria said he was very positive TBN and the foundation would be able to make a deal. “If the foundation gets it without us, so much the better for them because they’ve gotten some other source of funding. I say more power to them.”

College trustees are expected to decide on a buyer at an Oct. 15 meeting.

The uncertainty over TBN’s bid was a result of statements Casoria made to the community college board of trustees Aug. 20, when the bids were made public.

At the time, Casoria stunned about 200 people at Orange Coast College when he announced the broadcast ministry believed the offer to keep the station in the PBS fold “is the best responsible bid ... and offers to work with them in their effort to be the ultimate successful bidder.”

In addition to two meetings since then, the two groups have discussed the issue over the telephone. Bob Brown, president of the foundation, said those at the first meeting discussed how TBN could help the foundation bid financially and whether the network had educational material that would fit with the station.

“I asked them for $10 million,” said Brown, former president of Toshiba America. “I’m not bashful. When someone says they’re going to support you, you have to ask how much.”

Casoria said TBN, which owns 27 TV stations and boasts $500 million in worldwide assets, could not give the foundation money. Its donors give their funds for Christian TV, he said.

“Our concept of any kind of financial transaction would be as a loan or investment, showing a return to our partners,” he said.

Casoria said TBN was not driven by an attempt to keep its largest competitor, Daystar Television Network, from gaining an Orange County outlet.