Koce

KOCE-TV, the public television station headquartered at Golden West College, has been in talks with three other Southern California PBS stations to form a coalition that would share programming and join together in raising funds and promoting shows. The project has no timeline, but is considered an official plan, President and Chief Executive Mel Rogers said. Representatives for KOCE, Los Angeles-based KCET, Inland Empire-based KVCR and the Los Angeles Unified School District's KLCS most recently met Sept.

COSTA MESA — KOCE-TV, the Orange County's PBS station that has operated for nearly four decades at Golden West College, will move its facilities to Costa Mesa in the coming months, President and Chief Executive Mel Rogers announced Wednesday. The station plans to move its offices to a building at 3080 Bristol St., near South Coast Plaza, on Dec. 30, Rogers said. The announcement came shortly after PBS declared that KOCE will replace Los Angeles-based KCET on Jan. 1 as the new full-service public station for Southern California.

COSTA MESA — KOCE-TV, the Orange County public TV station that has operated for nearly four decades at Golden West College, will change its name along with its address and programs when it becomes Southern California's prime PBS station. Effective Jan. 1, the station will be known as PBS SoCal and broadcast both local and national PBS programs around the Southland. The station recently announced that it had taken over the role of full-service provider for the region after Los Angeles-based KCET opted to split from PBS. PBS SoCal, which has announced plans to move from Huntington Beach to a new headquarters in Costa Mesa, will broadcast to Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties and the city of Santa Barbara.

Marisa O'Neil The Coast Community College District board of trustees voted last week in a closed session to go ahead with a plan for KOCE-TV's foundation to purchase the station from them, keeping it a public broadcasting channel. Trustees for the district, which now holds the broadcast license for Orange County's only PBS affiliate, voted 4 to 1 in October to accept a $32-million bid by the station's fundraising arm. Wednesday's vote allows attorneys to draw up the proper agreements and seek the Federal Communications Commission's approval for the license transfer.

Jenny Marder Supporters of KOCE-TV are mobilizing in a grass-roots effort to take Orange County's only public news station off the market. Led by an eighth-grade science teacher and a KOCE engineer, a handful of protesters have been circulating petitions and handing out fliers and red T-shirts to encourage people to rally behind KOCE-TV. Two Web sites, SaveKOCE.org and KOCEforsale.com, have also been created to garner support. "This is something far too valuable and has too much of a future and a past to get rid of," said Janet English, a science teacher at Serrano Intermediate School in Lake Forest and a staunch supporter of the station.

The battle over KOCE-TV will return to the courtroom in November, the Fourth District Court of Appeals in Santa Ana announced this week. In July, both the Coast Community College District and the Daystar Television Network filed petitions for rehearings in the case. The district asked the court to reconsider its June 23 decision to nullify the sale of the public broadcasting station to the KOCE-TV Foundation, whereas Daystar demanded that the court award it immediate ownership of the station.

Marisa O'Neil KOCE-TV won't see significant changes for the foreseeable future, its operators said, despite an appeals court decision last week that leaves the future of Orange County's only public broadcasting television channel in jeopardy. A state appeals court last week voided the Huntington Beach-based station's sale by the Coast Community College District to the KOCE-TV Foundation, the station's fundraising arm. The decision would mean the district would have to return an $8-million deposit paid by the foundation and have the broadcasting license transferred back to its name.

An appellate court has accepted two petitions, one from the Daystar Television Network and one from the Coast Community College District, asking for rehearings on the sale of KOCE-TV. Earlier this month, the network and the district filed separate petitions regarding the June 23 decision by the Fourth District Court of Appeal to nullify the sale of the station to the KOCE-TV Foundation. Daystar filed a petition on July 8 demanding that the court award it immediate ownership of the station; 11 days later the district asked the judges to reconsider their ruling.

Only five bidders remain in a list of parties hoping to purchase public television station KOCE-TV, and the final bids will be presented at the Coast Community College District Board of Trustees Oct. 15 meeting. The highest bids so far have come from two religious broadcasters; Daystar Television and Trinity Broadcasting, who have both offered to buy the public television station for $25 million cash -- more than twice the amount offered by KOCE-TV's foundation and sister station KCET-TV, which joined forces to submit a $10,000 bid. Other remaining bidders are religious broadcasters Almavision Hispanic Network and LeSEA Broadcasting Corp.

Mike Sciacca One day before the station he founded celebrated its 30th anniversary, William A. Furniss passed away at the age of 66. Furniss, founder and president of KOCE-TV, Huntington Beach, died on Nov. 19 of lupus after a six-year battle with the disease. He was diagnosed with it just three months after his retirement. Furniss, a resident of Mission Viejo, is survived by his wife, Betty, three children and four grandchildren. He served as the station's president from 1970 until he retired in 1996.

In the coming months, KOCE-TV will move to Costa Mesa, change its name and become the new full-service PBS station for most of Southern California. And that means finding a new home for the cat. The station, which has operated at Golden West College since 1972, adopted a feline two years ago when rats began invading its studio. The cat, named Koce (pronounced "COH-see"), took care of the rat problem quickly but still lives there full time, in part because the crew got attached to her. "Now she's a part of the family," said news director Mike Taylor.

COSTA MESA — KOCE-TV, the Orange County public TV station that has operated for nearly four decades at Golden West College, will change its name along with its address and programs when it becomes Southern California's prime PBS station. Effective Jan. 1, the station will be known as PBS SoCal and broadcast both local and national PBS programs around the Southland. The station recently announced that it had taken over the role of full-service provider for the region after Los Angeles-based KCET opted to split from PBS. PBS SoCal, which has announced plans to move from Huntington Beach to a new headquarters in Costa Mesa, will broadcast to Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties and the city of Santa Barbara.

COSTA MESA — KOCE-TV, the Orange County's PBS station that has operated for nearly four decades at Golden West College, will move its facilities to Costa Mesa in the coming months, President and Chief Executive Mel Rogers announced Wednesday. The station plans to move its offices to a building at 3080 Bristol St., near South Coast Plaza, on Dec. 30, Rogers said. The announcement came shortly after PBS declared that KOCE will replace Los Angeles-based KCET on Jan. 1 as the new full-service public station for Southern California.

KOCE-TV, the public television station headquartered at Golden West College, has been in talks with three other Southern California PBS stations to form a coalition that would share programming and join together in raising funds and promoting shows. The project has no timeline, but is considered an official plan, President and Chief Executive Mel Rogers said. Representatives for KOCE, Los Angeles-based KCET, Inland Empire-based KVCR and the Los Angeles Unified School District's KLCS most recently met Sept.

Before there was Brown v. Board of Education, there was Mendez v. Westminster. Produced by Huntington Beach-based KOCE-TV, the documentary, “Mendez v. Westminster: For All the Children,” recognized the importance of the 1946 court case which desegregated Orange County schools, paving the way for Brown v. Board of Education eight years later. The 27-minute film, produced in 2002, was recently placed in the Paley Center’s collection in New York City and Los Angeles.

KOCE-TV, the only public TV station in Orange County, will remain in the hands of its foundation, as the Daystar Television Network has reached a settlement to drop its ongoing lawsuit and its bid for ownership of the station. Last week, attorneys for Daystar, a Texas-based Christian broadcaster, and the KOCE-TV Foundation worked out a confidential settlement that would leave KOCE under the foundation's control. The settlement was finalized Tuesday, and the Coast Community College District ?

The Huntington Beach Public Works department's utilities division is warning of a possible water shortage in the city this summer, as a dry winter and a lack of water in the Sacramento River Delta have cut into supplies. As a result, residents have been asked to reduce consumption voluntarily by 10%. The city's suggestions include watering lawns only every other day and using a broom rather than a hose to clean up the driveway. Average residential water use in the city is 11,250 gallons per month; watering on alternate days saves 1,100 gallons, while using a garden hose 10 minutes less saves 100. For more information on conservation, visit www.bewaterwise.

A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed a racketeering charge against KOCE-TV, the embattled Orange County public television station based in Huntington Beach that has been in court since it was sold to its own fundraising foundation in 2004. When the Coast Community College District, which owned KOCE, sold it to the KOCE-TV Foundation, Christian broadcaster Daystar Television Network protested that its bid was higher. This May, an appellate court judge voided the sale. Dallas-based Daystar had filed four federal complaints against KOCE-TV, including the racketeering charge.

The Coast Community College District board of trustees has voted to appeal the latest court decision regarding KOCE-TV after a public meeting in which a number of residents spoke in support of keeping the television station public. During a closed session after their regular meeting June 21, the members opted to appeal an appellate court ruling from last month, in which the judge said the district violated its own bidding rules by selling KOCE to the station's foundation. The Daystar Television Network, a Christian broadcaster that operates stations across America, made a higher cash bid and sued shortly after the sale.