California Gov. Arnold Schwarenegger vetoed Sept. 30 [2006] a bill that would have helped KOCE's public TV licensee hold on to the station's license instead of seeing it sold to the highest bidder, a religious broadcasting chain.
The KOCE Foundation had not expected the governor would sign Assembly Bill 523 but hoped he would let it become law automatically the next day. Republicans were split on the issue. For example, the county's party chairman, Scott Baugh, was hired to lobby for Daystar Television, the religious TV chain, and Jo Ellen Allen, first vice chair of the county G.O.P., is board chair of the KOCE licensee.
Since the California legislature sent the bill to Schwarzenegger at the end of August, KOCE had urged backers to phone the governor’s automated call counter in Sacramento. Daystar meanwhile urged its flock to press for a veto.
The bill would have created a narrow exception to the law governing disposal of state property. If enacted, a community college district in Orange County disposing of a public TV station would not have to sell it to the highest bidder — it could consider other criteria.
The bill would not have guaranteed that KOCE's licensee would retain the station, but it would have made it easier.
In May, the state's 4th District Court of Appeals ruled that state law required the Coast Community College District to sell the station to the highest bidder, Daystar, instead of to the KOCE group. The judges invalidated the sale and handed the case back to a lower court.
Among the possibilities ahead: The college district could seek bids again or lease the channel to the KOCE Foundation for its operation as a public TV station. Both Daystar and the foundation are bristling with legal tactics. KOCE says its donors may file a class action suit and warns that CPB may demand the return of past grants. Daystar has accused the college district of religious discrimination in federal court.
Press coverage highlighted the underlying culture war. In the shorthand of the Orange County Register, the bill aims “to make it harder for religious broadcasters to buy” KOCE.
Coverage by the Los Angeles Times has been skeptical of KOCE, repeating the theme that the bill would give a low price to “a foundation backed by wealthy, influential figures,” including donors of nearly $950,000 to Schwarzenegger campaigns since 2002.
KCET, the largest pubTV operation in Southern California, said Sept. 20 that it will start a digital multicast and cable channel with Orange County programming, KCET Orange, in fall 2007. Earlier this year the station launched a Coachella Valley channel called KCET Desert Cities.
California State University in Fullerton will collaborate with KCET on the new O.C. channel—a deal concluded since an August lunch meeting between Cal State and KCET execs, according to the Orange County Register. The channel would be funded through special O.C. pledge drives and underwriting.
O.C. news has been a specialty of KOCE since it launched its nightly Real Orange news program in 1997. President Mel Rogers says he also plans to launch an all-news cable channel for O.C. next year, but the broadcast license fight has been distracting.
In practical terms, both new channels would be handicapped by carriage on the digital tier of cable systems, which has fewer subscribers than basic cable, where the main channels of KOCE and other broadcasters are located.
Rogers welcomes more O.C. programming, noting that its population of 3.2 million, if it were not part of the vast L.A. market, would have much more local media.
KCET President Al Jerome also played down the notion of competition. “I look at it as doing a better job in public television,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
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posted Oct. 2, 2006
Copyright 2006 by Current Publishing Committee
