Sale of PBS Outlet Nearly Done

The protracted sale of Orange County’s PBS station will be all but completed tonight with the expected approval vote by trustees of the Coast Community College District.

The sale of the station to the KOCE-TV Foundation for $28 million completes a yearlong process filled with legal and financial challenges, including a struggle by the foundation’s wealthy members to raise the money.

The foundation needed three deadline extensions to raise the down payment of $7.9 million, which was delivered to the college district Monday.

Mel Rogers, KOCE-TV’s president, said the foundation will take over the station Thursday. Rogers, who will continue to run the station and who expects to join the foundation board, said programming changes will begin in the spring but most of them -- including more local programming -- won’t occur until July.

Rogers said the foundation had received bank loans of $10 million, which includes money for station operations. For collateral, the foundation collected $10 million in donations and pledges to be paid over three years.

Having made the down payment, and an earlier $100,000 deposit, the foundation will pay nothing more for five years. After that, it will pay $875,000 a year over the next 25 years at no interest. Experts set the deal’s value in current dollars at $12.5 million to $19.5 million.

Daystar Television Network, the world’s second-largest Christian broadcaster, offered $40 million in cash, but the district turned it town because the bid was received a day after the deadline.

Daystar lost its lawsuit to reverse the deal, and an appeal is pending.

Daystar filed an unsuccessful challenge to the sale with the Federal Communications Commission, which approved the license transfer last month.

George Brown, president of the college board, said that three months ago he wasn’t sure the foundation would be able to come up with the money.

“We were hopeful, but we weren’t going to the bank with it,” he said. “We’re proud of them.”

Bob Brown, the foundation chairman, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The college board will also decide how to spend the $8 million in sale proceeds.

The district administration has proposed spending $1 million to restore classes eliminated because of budget cuts, said Ron Berggren, a district vice chancellor.

Legal bills and the commission to the firm that brokered the sale will cost the district about $900,000.