C-SPAN Bus Offers Broadcast Lessons

To Cypress High School Principal Tracy Brennan, the Friday morning tour of the C-SPAN School Bus was like a trip to a Hollywood movie studio.

“The way it’s decorated, the cameras, the TV screens and computers--there’s so much in there,” said a wide-eyed Brennan as she enthusiastically jumped off the bus steps with her students. “It’s like going to Disneyland for me.”

Students and teachers at four local junior high and high schools got a chance to poke around the cable network’s 45-foot bright yellow bus during its only Orange County visit on a three-month tour of the western United States.

The mobile television studio made stops at John F. Kennedy High School-Lexington Junior High in La Palma, Walker Junior High in Cypress and Cypress High School before heading north to Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.

At Cypress High, C-SPAN workers explained to the students that they provide more full-length coverage of speeches and other events than the major networks traditionally have offered.

“It is interesting how they give you the whole thing rather than bits and pieces,” said Victoria Wostenberg, 14, who was equally impressed that she sat in a bus where President Clinton had been interviewed.

“This should be public TV so everyone can watch it and get more knowledge,” she said. “We don’t have cable, but I’m going to watch it at my grandparents’ house.”

Groups of about 12 students at a time sat on a curved couch in the converted motor coach and watched video clips of U.S. Senate proceedings and presidential press conferences.

Brennan said exposure to the technical aspects of putting together television programming gives students some career ideas they may not have considered before.

“It would be great to travel on a bus like that,” said Ruby Jain, 15. “You study government and that, but then you realize there’s this whole other world of TV out there. And you get to see famous people.”

C-SPAN’s two school buses have traveled through 49 states during the past three years offering students and teachers a close-up view of how the channel puts out 24-hour public affairs programming.

During their bus trips, C-SPAN workers also have followed the 1996 presidential campaign and reported on issues in various congressional districts.

“We visit city halls, schools and other town hall types of places,” said Kris Paisley, a C-SPAN employee. “In the afternoons, we do interviews and pick up programming along the way. I’ve seen a lot of the country.”

She’d also like see the only state the bus crew hasn’t toured. “We hope to make it to Hawaii soon,” she said.