After 34 Years With C-SPAN, Brian Lamb Steps Down

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Happy for Brian Lamb, but soooo sad for me and the millions of people who love him. BBB Sad

After 34 Years With C-SPAN, Brian Lamb Steps Down
by NPR Staff Talk of the Nation
March 21, 2012

The Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network went live in 1979. Its founder and CEO, Brian Lamb, became a pioneer in cable television when he pushed for public access to government proceedings. Congress at first resisted, but the House eventually opened its doors to cameras, and the Senate later followed.

The network now includes three cable channels, C-SPAN radio and an online video archive of all programming that has aired since 1987. Lamb is stepping down after 34 years with the network.

Lamb hosts several shows for C-SPAN, including Booknotes, Book TV and Q&A, the last of which he will continue to film. He talks with NPR's Neal Conan about what it was like establishing the unbiased watchdog of the congressional chambers, the future of C-SPAN and his as-yet unfulfilled wish for the network.

Interview Highlights

On whether he accomplished what he set out to do

"I guess. I mean, I didn't have a grand plan. Certainly when we started with eight hours a day, sharing the Madison Square Garden Sports Network, I wasn't sure where it would end up, whether it would even end up. I mean, after a short time, it could have gone away.

"But having three networks and a nationwide radio station and a network probably was not in my head, but I think what was in my head is that this whole world of communications was going to change dramatically, and if we didn't do it, somebody would."

President Bush presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Lamb during a 2007 ceremony.

On blaming Brian Lamb for the soundbite, because C-SPAN cameras roll in otherwise empty chambers

"I don't care what anybody's reaction is. They can blame us all they want to. This country prided itself on openness and yet, it wasn't open. It's still not open. And all we're trying to do is let people know how their money is being spent. And clearly ... they've tried to push it under the rug for years, and now we've got a problem."

On callers who curse during live broadcasts

"I don't like swearing on the air. As a matter of fact, I'm not a prude, but ... I watch HBO and some of the comedy stuff, and I'm constantly asking myself, why have we gone there? It seems like it's unfortunate. It's so cheap. It's so easy.

"And so when people take advantage of the fact that we have open phones with no delay and do what they do here, it's a disappointment more than anything. It usually comes in spurts, and then it goes away for a long time. ... We are always looking at this and we get close to [using] the delay and nobody really wants to do it because they want to keep it free and open. But if the American people abuse this privilege, some day we may have to do that."

On his unfinished business: televising Supreme Court arguments

"I have long since realized that's going to be one very difficult accomplishment, and it won't be on my watch, and I never did think it would. They're pretty well dug in over there, and it's too bad because I think they are a great institution, and I think that the public would benefit from the education alone."

PHOTO:

C-SPAN Chief Executive Officer Brian Lamb poses in his Washington office Oct. 1, 1998.

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@BumbleBeeBoogie,

03/22/2012
Brian Lamb Talks About Retirement On Talkline
MetroNews Talkline

After almost 35 years, the founder and longtime CEO of C-SPAN is preparing to retire.

Brian Lamb, 70, will step down from his role as CEO on April first.

It's a plan he says he has had for some time. "I just wanted a natural, normal, standing up transition. I didn't want to be carried out," Lamb said on Thursday's MetroNews Talkline.

Lamb created C-SPAN, which provides full coverage of the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and Congressional committee meetings, in 1978.

He says C-SPAN, which stands for Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network, has always been about public access. It was one of the first nationally distributed cable channels.

At the beginning, though, "I didn't have a great blueprint on what it should be and I knew that, if it was going to expand, it was going to take the public to get that done."

The network now includes three cable channels, C-SPAN Radio and massive online archives.

His new role at C-SPAN will be more limited. He'll be staying on as C-Span's Executive Chair and will continue his Sunday night interview program, "Q&A."

VIDEO:
http://www.wvmetronews.com/news.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=51741

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@BumbleBeeBoogie,

Brian Lamb helped found C-SPAN—the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network—and has served as the company’s chief executive officer since its beginning in 1979. Today, more than 86 million households can tune in C-SPAN’s flagship television network.

The concept of a public affairs network that provides in-depth coverage of national and international issues was a natural for Mr. Lamb, who has been both a journalist and a political press secretary. Interested in broadcasting from childhood, he worked at Indiana radio and TV stations while attending high school and college, spinning records, selling ads, and eventually hosting the locally popular "Dance Date" television program.

After graduation from Purdue University, Mr. Lamb joined the Navy; his tour included White House duty in the Johnson administration and a stint in the Pentagon public affairs office during the Vietnam War. In 1967, he went home to Lafayette, Indiana. Washington beckoned, however, and he soon returned to the nation’s capital. There, he worked as a freelance reporter for UPI Audio, a Senate press secretary and a White House telecommunications policy staffer.

In 1974, Brian Lamb began publishing a biweekly newsletter called The Media Report. He also covered communications issues as Washington bureau chief for Cablevision magazine. It was from this vantage point that the idea of a public affairs network delivered by satellite began to take shape.

By 1977, Mr. Lamb had won the support of key cable industry executives for a channel that could deliver gavel-to-gavel coverage of the U.S. Congress. Organizing C-SPAN as a not-for-profit company, the group built one of D.C.’s first satellite uplinks—just in time to deliver the first televised session of the U.S. House of Representatives to 3.5 million cable households on March 19, 1979.

With cable industry support, C-SPAN grew rapidly and today employs 275 people and offers three 24-hour television networks, C-SPAN, C-SPAN2, and C-SPAN3:

C-SPAN: The flagship network provides gavel-to-gavel coverage of the U.S. House of Representatives.

C-SPAN also offers coverage of daily political events from Washington, including congressional hearings, White House briefings, news conferences, policy seminars, and more.

C-SPAN2: Created in 1986 to cover U.S. Senate proceedings. On weekends,

C-SPAN2 features Book TV, 48 hours of non-fiction book programming, 8 am Saturdays though 8 am Mondays.

C-SPAN3: launched on a twenty-four hour basis in January, 2001 and available to systems offering digital cable packages.

C-SPAN also programs WCSP, an FM radio station which serves the Washington/Baltimore area and nationally on satellite radio. C-SPAN also has an extensive presence on the internet that can be accessed at www.c-span.org.

A regular on-air presence for C-SPAN, Brian Lamb has also hosted Booknotes since the program’s inception in 1989, taping more than six hundred nonfiction author interviews. He has also published three books based on the series. He lives in Arlington, Virginia.

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