Budget, Programming Challenges Face New KOCE Owners

With the sale of Orange County’s Public Broadcasting Service outlet all but assured, the new owners face the seemingly conflicting tasks of cutting the station’s budget by about 23% while making good on their promise to revitalize KOCE-TV with more local programming.

The cost-cutting will come from trimming the station’s workforce by one-third and by sharply reducing paid holidays and other benefits for employees after the KOCE-TV Foundation buys the station from the Coast Community College District.

“They had to operate under college rules, and that’s not necessarily the best way to run a TV station,” said Joel Slutzky, chairman of Odetics, an Anaheim communications and technology company, and head of the foundation’s strategic plan committee.

Like many other foundation leaders, Slutzky has expertise in running a company, but not in public television. The question is, can they translate their enthusiasm, business acumen and public support into a station that will capture the community’s imagination?

The change of ownership -- expected July 1, after the Federal Communications Commission approves transfer of the broadcast license -- will not be painless. The district has offered its station employees a variety of severance, retirement and transfer packages that John Renley, the vice chancellor for resources, expects will cost about $350,000. Some will continue working at KOCE with reduced benefits.

The deals will depend on the employee’s age and years of service. Some who have worked for the district for more than 15 years will receive $15,000, Renley said. District employees who transfer to the foundation will receive $5,000, he said.

The changeover has angered many people who were counting on the district’s benefits and retirement. “We have reasonably good salaries, and we have a great retirement system,” Renley said. “When you take those things into account, 95% of [the employees] would not want us to sell. They’d want to keep working the way they are.”

When the foundation takes over, KOCE will lose the $1.8-million subsidy it received each year from the college district. Its annual budget will drop from $7.8 million to the $6 million it expects to collect through contributions, memberships and grants.

Foundation officials said they would run a leaner operation, one without unions. “We have to run this as a business,” said Bob Brown, chairman of the foundation and the retired president of Toshiba America.

Benefits, foundation officials said, will be in line with what other private companies offer. “There’s no question [that] the costs of the benefits if we were to take those over ... would be prohibitive,” Brown said.

Paid holidays for station employees will drop from 21 to 12, and they will not have the extensive medical, dental and retirement benefits that made working for the colleges so attractive.

“That’s part of the reason you come to work for an educational institution,” said Hall Davidson, the station’s director of educational television services.

Station President Mel Rogers, who is staying on under the new regime, said the station can get by with fewer employees by using new technology, freelancers and “people who don’t require high salaries and benefits.”

Among those losing their jobs, as the station goes from about 60 employees to around 40, are 10 engineers and other technicians represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. The collective bargaining contracts of the alliance and the Coast Federation of Classified Employees do not transfer with the sale.

Greg Brenner, an engineer and director, is losing his job after 26 years at the district. The 51-year-old hopes he can freelance for the station. “I’m disappointed,” he said. “I’d love to still be working here a few more years, but I’ve got to go with the flow.”

After months of uncertainty, the foundation took a giant step toward gaining ownership of the station last week when an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled that the $28-million sale of the station could go forward.

The deal was challenged by the Daystar Television Network, the world’s second-largest religious broadcaster, which argued that the district should have accepted its all-cash bid instead of the foundation’s offer, which included 30 years of payments without interest.

Dallas-based Daystar has said it would appeal the ruling.

Foundation officials said viewers won’t see much of a difference in programming after the change in ownership. That will take three to six months as the station raises money and canvasses the county for ideas.

“We can’t just turn on the local coverage,” Brown said.

Despite its support from Orange County’s rich and famous, the foundation has struggled to raise money to buy the station.

It has had to borrow $10 million from a bank to make its down payment and meet operating expenses. Brown said last week that he was about to sign an agreement for a combination loan and line of credit.

Foundation officials say they want KOCE to fill a news, public affairs and cultural void in Orange County.

Slutzky said the top three issues the station wanted to focus on were the arts, education and the environment. He pointed to last week’s Newport Film Festival and the Dalai Lama’s recent visit to UC Irvine. “We should be at all those places, and in a year we will,” he said.

Because it is what is known as an overlap station, KOCE can run only a quarter of the national PBS shows, such as the Ken Burns series on baseball and the Civil War, which attract the large prime-time audiences.