New Station Debuts This Fall
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CSUF Student Shines at KCET Cal State Fullerton and KCET Enter Into Exclusive Orange County Partnership KCET Website |
KCET Orange–the innovative new PBS television channel that will debut in late fall–is the result of a carefully cultivated relationship between two organizations that, like two individuals, saw a lot in each other from the very beginning.
Cal State Fullerton and KCET, the West Coast flagship station of the Public Broadcasting Services, have bonded through fruitful sponsorship agreements and advertising accords over the past two years–all of them successful. KCET was the exclusive media sponsor for the new Performing Arts Center’s inaugural season and has supported CSUF in myriad advertising opportunities. CSUF President Milton A. Gordon, in turn, has become part of KCET’s Corporate Spotlight series.
“As Cal State Fullerton was partnering with KCET, we were getting to know the university, Titan Communications, and President Gordon,” said Al Jerome, president and CEO of KCET. “In time, we met with them to discuss the idea of a KCET digital channel, with special service to Orange County and CSUF as a partner.
“It’s not easy to bring two organizations together to mesh talents,” he adds. “It takes patience, creativity, and we have a good partner. KCET has a lot to give. Orange County has a lot to gain.”
The new, 24/7 digital television channel will broadcast to KCET’s 11-county viewing audience beginning in November, expanding the local programming KCET already provides to its viewers. It will become the fifth PBS station in Southern California. It is believed to be the only station of its kind in the country: One that is operated by a licensee in a voluntary collaboration with a university.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for both of us,” said President Milton A. Gordon. “To date, the KCET-CSUF partnership has been one of the best partnerships established in my 17 years at the university. Literally everywhere I go, someone mentions seeing me on KCET, or seeing the Performing Arts Center on KCET. The partnership has generated more visibility for Cal State Fullerton than anything I’ve engaged in.”
PBS programming will be supplemented with original programming developed in part with Cal State Fullerton faculty and students. KCET executives and CSUF deans are meeting to discuss the ways in which university and station staffs can collaborate on future programming.
“There are a lot of interesting things we do, and some of it deserves to be better known,” said Thomas Klammer, dean of the humanities and social sciences. “Some of it would be rich content for programming.” One example, he said, was oral histories of veterans from the El Toro Marine Base now being collected by the Center for Oral and Public History, a project that would lend itself to television.
