Public TV station on a crusade for bigger audience.

When KOCE President Mel Rogers walks through the public television station's facilities he sees a future rife with potential, including a chance for the Huntington Beach-based Channel 50 to anchor a second PBS network.

But Rogers also sees the past, as in the 1970s-era offices and a decade-old master control system that desperately needs replacing. And the present: an operation that's better known as a sleepy stepsister to L.A.-based KCET.

"Somewhere along the way KOCE lost touch with its community, mainly Orange County," said Rogers, a 13-year public television veteran who came from Utah in January to run the station.

Which brings Rogers back to the future. He's busy laying plans to make KOCE relevant again - a station that will be a forum for Orange County issues and offer "civilizing" programs to its Orange County and L.A. viewers.(Fifty-two percent of KOCE viewers are in L.A. County and the station reaches all the L.A. homes via cable.)

Since he arrived, Rogers has announced plans to:

* Scrap the venerable "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" to pay for "Real Orange," an Orange County public affairs program set to debut this week:

* Commit S30,000 to knock out the wall between the station's two small studios and create a larger set that Rogers hopes will appeal to local ad firms for commercial shoots;

* Land underwriters who would get on-air plug in return for their sponsorship of local programming;

* Plan a fund-raising campaign to raise money to upgrade the station's equipment and begin to raise the $6 million that the station will need to upgrade to digital transmission in about six years.

The fund-raising campaign will be a keystone, according to Rogers, who concedes that his grand plans mean the station will need to roughly double its $5.3 million annual budget.

KOCE currently gets 20 percent of that budget from the Coast Community College District and another 10 percent to 13 percent from the federal government-backed Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The balance comes from underwriters and members.

Rogers said the business community is the best bet for boosting the station's funding, but conceded that will take some repositioning. Rather than trying to sell KOCE as a good cause, Rogers said he wants to pitch underwiting as a good use of marketing dollars.

"You can't do a commercial." Rogers said. "But we can describe the product. We can put your slogan and logo on the air. We can do a lot more than KOCE has done in the past."

Rogers said he believes the Los Angeles-Orange County area and other similar markets around the county can support two PBS stations. and he plans to demonstrate that here. He even plans to accentuate KOCE's differences with KCET by showing the two stations' schedules side-by-side on the air.

While employees are glad to see a buzz at the station. not everyone is sure what to make of Rogers. When OC Weekly wrote a cover story in June that said Rogers' station was still "grandma's TV." some employees expected an angry response, but found Rogers was delighted the station managed to get on the cover and five pages of coverage.

Although its resources for spot news are limited, the station is trying to increase its hours of local programming by forming partnerships and by ranting equipment to cover important events.

The station covered Huntington Beach's Fourth of July parade and was back in Surf City to cover the first day of operations after the merger between Boeing Co. and McDonnell Douglas Corp. became official.

The station is also looking to get more local businesses involved in the station, particularly in underwriting new efforts like "Real Orange." which is budgeted at about $500,000 for its first year.

Rogers said several sponsors have given a verbal commitment to "Real Orange." adding that he's confident that the show will make it. Rogers said the program initially will be a lot of talking heads because the station has little capacity for spot news, but he said the show will look to be the one exploring Orange County issues in depth.

As Rogers outlines his vision, his staff is busy trying to make "Real Orange" into a reality. In one office, several staff members are still looking for a man and woman to host the show. From the sound stage comes the whir of drills as workers are trying to finish the studio in time for the Sept. I debut.

In a dimly lit office above the studio, Producer Jack Gallagher and Associate Producer Maria Brown discuss the format of the show, still waiting for their phones to be installed.

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