Date: Fri 19-Jan-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

C-SPAN-schools

Full Text:

with cut: C-SPAN Pulls Off The Road At The High School

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

The 45-foot, bright yellow C-SPAN school bus stopped off at Newtown High

School Wednesday morning on its Campaign '96 tour across America.

The traveling TV studio and media demonstration center is visiting schools all

over the United States to help teach students and teachers about how C-SPAN's

campaign and election coverage can be used to bring the political process to

life in the classroom.

C-SPAN (Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network) was created in 1979 to provide

live, "gavel-to-gavel" coverage of the US House of Representatives, as well as

other national and international public affairs. It is the political network

of record, according to John Meynard, C-SPAN's affiliate relation

representative, who welcomed groups of NHS students aboard all morning.

"Unlike the major television networks, which may only show about 40 seconds of

a speech by President Clinton, C-SPAN shows the entire event from

gavel-to-gavel."

The students were asked if they ever watched C-SPAN.

"My dad watches it, but I'm not sure what's it's all about. It's kind of

boring," one student said.

The $800,000 bus, made by the same custom coach company that built sports

commentator John Madden's bus, has covered nearly 88,000 miles on its current

tour. The vehicle, 12-feet tall and 8« feet wide, is equipped with a full

television studio, used to interview Senators, Congressmen and, on one

occasion, Mr Clinton.

In addition to showing students how public affairs channel can be used as a

resource, C-SPAN visited Newtown to thank Charter Communications for providing

the cable channel to its viewers.

"It's our way of saying thanks to Charter," noted Joe Teeples, a C-SPAN

production manager.

The C-SPAN bus is driven by Bill Johns, who said a lot of people wave as the

bus travels from town to town.

"There are a lot of people who watch C-SPAN. They call themselves C-SPAN

junkies," he explained.

In addition to visiting schools, the C-SPAN bus will make campaign stops at

Iowa state caucuses and the New Hampshire state primary, as well as both

Chicago and San Diego, the host cities for the major party conventions.

So far, more than 5,400 teachers and 22,500 students have come aboard the bus,

which was purchased in 1993.

Lt Gov Jodi Rell was scheduled to visit the school bus, but a school delay

forced her to cancel her trip.