Koce

Norman Watson, whose ambition and hard work helped to expand the Coast Community College District and provided Orange County with its premier public television station, has died at the age of 92. The district’s first chancellor and the founder of KOCE-TV, Watson died Feb. 29. Throughout the years, his name had become a common sight around the district: OCC’s former library, which opened in 1969, was known as the Norman E. Watson Library,...

TV station forms a committee to help create programs with educational themes.KOCE-TV, Orange County's only public television station, has formed an education committee to improve the station's connections with the local school community. The 16-member committee, chaired by Marian Bergeson, a former state senator and assemblywoman, had its first meetings late last year. Melinda Gann, director of communications for KOCE, said the committee would officially launch its work in January.

The Coast Community College District's attorneys on Monday filed another appeal in the case over KOCE-TV, asking to overturn a recent California Supreme Court decision that voided the sale of the public television station to its own foundation. In May, Judge David Sills ruled that the 2004 sale was invalid, citing that the Daystar Television Network, a Christian broadcaster, had offered a higher cash bid. Daystar and the college district have been in the court system for more than two years, with Daystar demanding ownership of the station and the district defending its action.

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.

Janet English, the director of educational services for KOCE-TV, has been appointed to the National Educational Telecommunications Assn.'s board of directors. KOCE spokeswoman Margot Suarez announced English's appointment Wednesday afternoon. As a member of the national board, which oversees all 50 states, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, English will work with professionals in education and public television to help bring multimedia to the classroom. English, a Lake Forest resident who holds a teaching credential from Cal State Long Beach, also serves on the National Teacher Advisory Council, National Science Teachers Assn.

The Coast Community College District, which has been bogged down in a legal dispute since selling KOCE-TV to its own foundation in 2004, has asked a state court to uphold a prior decision that would return the public station to the district. In a status report that was expected to be filed with Orange County Superior Court on Monday, attorney Milford Dahl wrote that the college district was "weary" of the time and money spent on the KOCE case and sought to regain ownership of the station's license.

Marisa O'Neil Coast Community College District trustees voted Wednesday night in 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.

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.

Local PBS station KOCE started filming a short documentary news segment Monday on the controversy surrounding Banning Ranch. Activists from the Save the Banning Ranch Task Force met to do interviews with the 400-acre parcel of undeveloped coastal land as the backdrop. The segment will likely air Friday evening as part of the Real Orange show at 6:30 p.m. On Thursday, reporter David Nazar hopes to get the other side of the conflict when he interviews Mike Mohler, who represents the company that wants to develop the land into about 1,300 homes, a hotel and retail shops.

COSTA MESA — Signs that the new PBS SoCal building was still under construction were evident at a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for the public TV station's new headquarters. Ceiling tiles between lights were missing, and the building's inner pipes and beams were exposed. There were bright yellow hard hats on tables. Orange, magenta and purple balloons were strewn about the station's sparse 2,100-square foot studio space. Some 200 community and nonprofit leaders and donors — including members of Costa Mesa's City Council, "Real Orange" host Ed Arnold, and Jo Ellen Chatham, president of PBS SoCal's board of directors — showed up at the building at 3080 Bristol St., less than a mile from South Coast Plaza.

Once again Christmas came early this year as the super dedicated and giving folks who support the Pacific Chorale gathered for an early fall dinner at Big Canyon Country Club, Newport Beach, to raise funds needed to produce their annual holiday gala, "A Dickens Feast. " To set the stage for the fundraiser, Newport's dynamic Jan Landstrom was on the phone to Roger's Gardens in mid-September, requesting a fully-lighted and decorated holiday tree for the country club's dining room.

Amid ongoing speculation that KCET may break away from PBS, representatives from the four Los Angeles-area PBS affiliates met Wednesday to discuss a restructuring plan that would prevent the nation's second-largest media market from losing its flagship public television station. The plan explored calls for the KCET to form a consortium with Orange County's KOCE, the Inland Empire's KVCR and the Los Angeles school district's KLCS. The stations then would save money by reducing programming overlap, cross promoting, and better coordinating fundraisers.

"Discover Orange County" has become quite popular for its detailed take on the region, whether it's the old cottages at Crystal Cove State Park, tracking where your trash goes from the garbage can to the dump, or checking out Old Town Orange. Now comes another program. Only this time it's going to give viewers a sneak peek into the Upper Newport Bay and introduce them to all sorts of wildlife that live there — from the flora and fauna to migratory birds. Called "Upper Newport Bay," the segment will premiere at noon Sunday and again at 9 a.m. Tuesday on KOCE-TV, the PBS station that airs from Ventura to San Clemente to Palm Springs.

An extravagant evening in Newport Beach unfolded last Saturday at The Island Hotel on behalf of KOCE-TV Public Television. The grand gala, co-chaired by Peggy Goldwater Clay and Ardelle St. George , was themed "That's Entertainment." The party certainly lived up to its title. Super-generous underwriter John Tu , chairman of Kingston Technology Corp., and his 28 - member band, known as "California Dreamin'" (with Tu on the drums ), absolutely blew away the 250 black tie-clad guests who had gathered to support KOCE-TV.

Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor and Councilwoman Katrina Foley exchanged barbs at Tuesday’s City Council meeting about her speaking to the media about city negotiations for the purchase of the Orange County Fairgrounds. Mansoor admonished Foley from the council dais Tuesday, after she gave a TV interview to KOCE discussing the city’s negotiations with the state. Mansoor, who appeared to be reading from a prepared statement, accused Foley of releasing sensitive information from a closed-session City Council meeting to the media.

The invitation read, “Life Is A Journey … The Learning Never Ends.” KOCE-TV, the shining star of Orange County public television held its 2009 dinner fundraiser at the Island Hotel, Newport Beach. The party was sophisticated and upbeat, honoring the remarkable career of California State Sen. Marian Bergeson Sen. Marian Bergeson and the contribution and partnership of the respected Discovery Science Center represented by Joe Adams . The gala evening was co-chaired by the elegant tall blond Orange County attorney Ardelle St. George and her fiery redheaded associate and local social mover and shaker Peggy Goldwater-Clay . This event, like many other serious-minded fundraisers for good causes, followed the traditional format of cocktails, dinner and auction.

Local PBS station KOCE started filming a short documentary news segment Monday on the controversy surrounding Banning Ranch. Activists from the Save the Banning Ranch Task Force met to do interviews with the 400-acre parcel of undeveloped coastal land as the backdrop. The segment will likely air Friday evening as part of the Real Orange show at 6:30 p.m. On Thursday, reporter David Nazar hopes to get the other side of the conflict when he interviews Mike Mohler, who represents the company that wants to develop the land into about 1,300 homes, a hotel and retail shops.

NEWPORT BEACH — Mel Rogers sometimes thinks of the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” when he looks back on the history of KOCE-TV. Not because the Frank Capra classic is a regular feature on KOCE, but because the film’s story — about a man who gets a glimpse of what his community would be like if he never existed — reminds Rogers of the impact KOCE has had on Orange County. Sometimes, he told the crowd Saturday at the PBS station’s 35th anniversary gala, he tries to imagine what the county would be like without its public television station, and he can never quite picture it. “It’s a tough thing to explain,” said Rogers, the president and chief executive of KOCE since 1997.