In their action taken at a regular Board meeting tonight, the CCCD Board of Trustees approved the terms of the sale of the broadcast license to the KOCE Foundation, a nonprofit corporation. The purchase price would consist of $8 million in cash, future cash payments of $17.5 million, $2.5 million in services and programming to be provided over the seven years following the close of a sale, and would avoid $4 million of costs that the District probably would have incurred if the KOCE license were sold to another bidder.

         Trustees instructed their attorneys to prepare the necessary legal documentation and applications for the proposed transaction. The final definitive acquisition agreement is likely to come back before the Board for a vote in February 2004.

EDITORS: A TERM SHEET IS AVAILABLE FROM THE DISTRICT PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE..

BACKGROUND

         Since early 2003, the Coast Community College District has been exploring its options in relation to its ownership of the license to operate KOCE-TV, Orange County’s PBS television station. The long-term indebtedness of the station, its annual operating losses and the mandated conversion from analog to digital have created financial challenges for the District, which have been exacerbated by the current state budget situation.

         Last spring, the District’s Board of Trustees hired a media advisor to help prepare a bid package which was distributed to institutions interested in partnering with the District as co-owners of KOCE-TV, or interested in purchasing the station outright.

         Proposals were due to the District’s media advisor – Media Venture Partners – by July 10, 2003. At a meeting August 20, Media Venture Partners presented five bids for the KOCE license to the Board of Trustees for consideration. One of those bids was a joint proposal from the KOCE-TV Foundation and KCET, a Los Angeles-based PBS station, offering a purchase price of $10 million. KCET has since withdrawn from the joint bid with the KOCE-TV Foundation. Four other bids for the station – all from religious broadcasters – offered up to $25 million. The Board directed its media broker to continue negotiating with the five remaining bidders in pursuing the best possible partnership or sale of KOCE-TV, while retaining the right to reject all proposals or bids if necessary.

         In October, the Board was presented with the remaining bidders’ “best and final” offers. At that time, the Board chose to enter into exclusive negotiations with the KOCE Foundation regarding price and terms of a possible sale of the KOCE-TV license for $8 million in cash and $24 million in notes.

         The Coast Community College District is the seventh largest community college district in the nation in credit enrollment, serving more than 60,000 students each semester. The district is comprised of Coastline Community College headquartered in Fountain Valley, Golden West College in Huntington Beach, Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, and KOCE-TV, the district’s public broadcasting station. KOCE-TV operates analog Channel 50 and digital Channel 48, transmitting from La Habra. The station has also submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission to construct a new analog transmitter on Mt. Wilson.

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