Brian Lamb, Chairman and CEO of C-SPAN, to Address Centenary College Graduates May 5 in Gold Dome

SHREVEPORT, LA -- Brian P. Lamb, chairman and chief executive officer of C-SPAN, will address Centenary College graduates during commencement exercises at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 5 in the Gold Dome.

Lamb helped found C-SPAN, the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, and has served as the company's CEO since its beginnings.

The concept of a public affairs network that provides in-depth coverage of national and international issues was a natural for Lamb, who has been both a journalist and a political press secretary.

Raised in Lafayette, Ind., he became interested in broadcasting during 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 graduating from Purdue University, Lamb joined the Navy. His tour included White House duty and a stint in the Pentagon Public Affairs Office. In 1967, he returned home to Lafayette and its local television station. Lamb soon returned to Washington where he worked as a freelance reporter for UPI Audio, as a Senate press secretary and as a White House telecommunications policy staffer.

In 1974, Lamb began publishing a biweekly newsletter called The Media Report. He also covered communication 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, 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 up-links by March 1979, just in time to deliver the first televised session of the U.S. House of Representatives to 3.5 million cable households.

With cable industry support, C-SPAN grew rapidly from a part-time video programming service.  Today, C-SPAN employs 275 people, offers two 24-hour video channels, C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2, plus a 50,000-watt radio station--WCSP-FM--which serves the Washington / Baltimore area. Still known best for live, gavel-to-gavel coverage of the U.S. Congress, each C-SPAN service provides unique public affairs programming on a wide range of news and public policy issues. Nearly 80 million households can tune in C-SPAN's flagship television network.

Lamb currently resides in Arlington, Va., and is one of C-SPAN's on-air hosts. At commencement, he will speak to about 200 graduates and an audience of about 2,000.

- 30 -