Dear Friends,
The parade your child marched in. A nonprofit changing lives. A veteran sharing their story. A student’s first graduation. An inspired student starting an internship. A City Council meeting that shaped our future. These moments become our history—but only if someone preserves them.
For more than 40 years, KOCT Television has been the Voice of North County – preserving our community’s history, providing government transparency, supporting local nonprofits, educating future media professionals, and telling the stories that make our community our own.
Today, that legacy is at risk. Years of declining franchise funding, combined with rising operating costs and an increasingly difficult charitable funding environment, have created a critical financial gap. KOCT needs to raise $100,000 to keep the station operating and serving our community. Without this support, KOCT will be confronted with closing our doors.
That means this isn’t simply a fundraising campaign to preserve a television station. It is a campaign to preserve a community voice. HELP SAVE KOCT HERE
KOCT Does More Than Broadcast City Meetings.
Through good times and difficult ones, KOCT has continued to show up for Oceanside.
We broadcast City meetings. We produce local public information programming. We support nonprofits, small businesses, and community organizations. We train the next generation of media professionals. We document the people, places, events, and decisions that become the history of our community.
Our Work goes far beyond our City Agreement.
In addition to our ongoing contractual responsibilities, KOCT has supported more than 100 City projects and initiatives through video production, communications, event coverage, public information, and community outreach.
KOCT works hard to keep you informed:
Operates two Cox cable channels, including the ongoing costs of maintaining and programming those channels.
Maintains a 24/7 streaming website, making local programming and community information accessible beyond traditional television.
Produces daily, in-the-field social media stories, bringing local news, events, people, and issues directly to residents where they are.
Provides after-school programs that introduce young people to media, storytelling, and technology.
Provides hands-on, career-ready training in partnership with Oceanside Unified School District and surrounding colleges, giving students practical experience and pathways into media careers.
Records and shares county election coverage and candidate statements, helping voters access local information and hear directly from candidates.
Reports on important local issues and community matters, providing residents with information they can use to better understand the place where they live.
Provides affordable production services to nonprofits and local businesses, generating approximately $200,000 in earned revenue each year while helping community organizations tell their stories and reach their audiences.
This work is part of what makes KOCT more than a television station.
We are a community resource, a service, an educational partner, a local media organization, an archive, and a force for community connection and content provider
DONATE TO KCOT HERE
A Community Archive That Cannot Be Recreated. For nearly five decades, KOCT has been documenting Oceanside. Thousands of hours of interviews, community events, local stories, public meetings, election coverage, and historic moments have been preserved in our archives. These are stories that may never be captured anywhere else—and once they are gone, they cannot be recreated.
If KOCT disappears, Oceanside doesn’t simply lose a Television Station.
We lose an important part of the community record. We lose a platform for local voices. We lose a resource for nonprofits, educators, students, residents, and community organizations. And we risk losing a trusted source of local information at a time when our community needs it most.
Transparency About Our Role.
We know there have been questions and public discussion about KOCT’s role in the community. We welcome that conversation. Simply said. Our City delivables out cost the City Contract.
Our Work, our Programming, our Partnerships, and our Contractual Responsibilities are matters of Transparency. KOCT is Oceanside’s designated PEG access operator, and under our agreement with the City of Oceanside, our responsibilities extend well beyond televising meetings. They include Public Information Programming, Educational Content, Public Service Announcements, Community Programming, Engineering & IT, Community Access Channels, Channel Management, and the preservation of Local Programming.
KOCT is not simply a Camera at City Hall.
For more than four decades, we have built a broad network of community services around the needs of Oceanside and North County.
Our Small Team Has Done More With Less.
Our small team has stretched every available resource to maintain this level of service.
We have worked to operate efficiently. We have developed earned revenue. We have built partnerships. We have expanded our digital access and platforms. We have found creative ways to continue serving students, nonprofits, businesses, voters, residents, and community organizations.
In fact, KOCT provides approximately $200,000 each year in affordable production services to local nonprofits and businesses, helping organizations throughout our community tell their stories while generating revenue to support our operations.
But Operational Efficiency alone cannot overcome this Structural Funding Gap.
Especially in today’s charitable financial climate, organizations like KOCT cannot sustain this breadth of community service without a broader understanding of our value and support from the community we serve.
We are not asking the community to simply save a television station. We are asking the community to invest in a resource that serves the community as a whole.
Help Us Reach $100,000
Our immediate goal is $100,000.
Without this funding, KOCT may not be able to make it to the 2026 local elections.
For the first time in decades, that would mean losing a local resource at a critical moment when residents need access to election coverage, candidate statements, public information, and community voices.
Every Donation Matters. GIVE ANY AMOUNT HERE
A $25 contribution matters. A $100 contribution matters. A business sponsorship or matching gift can make an even greater impact.
And if you cannot donate, sharing this campaign with your friends, neighbors, colleagues, businesses, nonprofits, schools, and community organizations is just as important.
Our goal isn’t simply to keep KOCT alive for another day.
Our goal is to make sure KOCT is here to cover Elections 2026 and to continue telling the regions story for the next generation.
Please donate today. Please share this campaign. Please ask your organization or business to consider supporting us. And please help us preserve the Voice of Oceanside and North County.
Support KOCT’s GoFundMe today: GoFundMe KOCT Television
$100,000 can help determine whether KOCT.org has a future. Together, let’s make sure the story of Oceanside continues to be told – by the people who live here, for the people who live here.
With Gratitude,
Carly Starr
Executive Director
KOCT Television
