Update: The Hollywood Reporter says KCET has closed the deal to sell and is looking for new studios. LA Observed has posted press releases from KCET and Scientology.

A well-placed source has told LA Weekly that KCET has been in talks to sell its famed studios in Hollywood in the wake of the public TV station's split with PBS and its plummeting viewership and contributors.

Others, however, told us that the rumor of a pending sale had been around for months, and every time some Hollywood suits are on the lot — often visiting just to lease studio time there — people gossip about the possibilities.

But late Wednesday the Los Angeles Times cited “real estate brokers” in reporting that the station would indeed sell its land to the nearby Church of Scientology and move to smaller digs.

The paper reports the 4.5 acre studios at 4376 Sunset Blvd. could be worth bout $14 million.

“It's an open secret that the place is beings sold,” our source said.

Speaking of what our source described as overpaid, six-figure salaried top executives:

They're going to leave the station burning and destroyed and walk away with money falling out of their pockets … It's a scandal … They only thing they're not dismantling is their own salaries … this is really sad.

KCET long prided itself as having the longest continuously operating lot in Hollywood.

The source said KCET employees were “just freaking out” over the possible sale and rumors of more job cuts there.

Another said the rumor of a land sale has been perpetual in recent months: “The rumor circulates a lot.”

Another source said, “Everyone in public media now is in fear of losing their job” — that it's not just KCET employees who have been quivering.

The station split with PBS in January.

The lot started operating in 1912 as a film studio.

First posted at 4:35 p.m. on March 30.

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