KCSM funding extended, station raising funds

The Board of Trustees approved a one-year extension of funding for KCSM-TV , once assured that most operating expenses will come from other sources.Station Manager Marilyn Lawrence presented a variety of sources of funding at the board's March 24 meeting that would bring the station to within about $100,000 of the shortfall created by the district's proposed $897,000 cut in funding.

A major donor has provided $400,000 to the station, said Lawrence.

Lawrence is finalizing negotiations for another $120,000 from a spectrum lease agreement with Sezmi, a company that integrates a customer's internet connection with airwave broadcasting to provide an alternate to cable TV programming.

Under the agreement, Sezmi would have use of six megabits per second of KCSM bandwidth, or about one-third of KCSM's 19.6 Mbps bandwidth, for the three year term of the lease.

Mark Benscheidt, Sezmi's vice president of broadcast business development could not be reached for comment.

Lawrence is also negotiating two more spectrum lease agreements worth about $100,000 each.

One, with KQED, is nearly finalized.

"Talks are going well," said Scott Walton, KQED communications director.

"There is no contract written, not yet - hopefully soon."

"I'm still being held up by legal contracts," Lawrence told the board.

She explained that she was still waiting on the San Mateo County Counsel to draw up the contracts.

"It was a seven-figure problem and now it's been whittled down," said Chancellor Ron Galatolo, acknowledging the progress that had been made securing funding, as well as the fact of remaining options such as the potential new contract with Peninsula-TV, which Lawrence was still negotiating.

"We need to give Lawrence another year," added Galatolo.

With the one-year extension, the county counsel would no longer be negotiating with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with regard to possible funds that the station would have to repay in the event that it changed hands, said Lawrence, who added that John Nibbelin, deputy county counsel, had gotten the finalized spectrum lease contracts to her the week of April 5 so that she could finalize those agreements.

Lawrence was uncertain when the revenue agreements would be finalized, but said that it should be soon.

Lawrence also met with Harry Joel, vice-chancellor of human resources for the district, on Monday, April 12, to iron out some of the ramifications of staff reductions made to close the budget gap.

"We're working on a plan to incorporate my employees into a managed hiring process," said Lawrence of the meeting, explaining that the retirements that helped reduce staff left possible new positions for remaining employees.

She was unable to provide specifics due to employee privacy concerns.