Berea, KY (9/23/02): Brian Lamb, founder, chairman, and CEO of C-SPAN, the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, will be speaking to the Berea College community Oct. 7 at 8 p.m. in Phelps Stokes Chapel.

Lamb has served as the company's chief executive officer since its beginning in 1979. Lamb's experience as a journalist and political press secretary led him to conceptualize a public affairs network that covers in-depth both national and international issues. After graduating from Purdue University, Lamb joined the Navy where he served at the White House as well as the Pentagon public affairs office during the Vietnam War. After a brief time at home in Lafayette, La., Lamb returned to Washington, D.C. where he worked as a freelance reporter for UPI Audio, a Senate press secretary, and as a White House telecommunications policy staffer.

In 1974, he began publishing a biweekly newsletter called "The Media Report," while also covering communication issues as Washington bureau chief for "Cablevision" magazine. In 1977, Lamb garnered the support of key cable industry executives for a channel that would deliver exclusive coverage of the U.S. Congress and C-SPAN was born on March 19, 1979. The first televised session of the U.S. House of Representatives was viewed by 3.5 million households.

Today, C-SPAN employs 275 people and offers three 24-hour television networks: C-SPAN, C-SPAN2, and C-SPAN3. C-SPAN also programs WCSP, a FM radio station which serves the Washington/Baltimore area, as well as maintains an extensive Internet site at http://www.c-span.org.

Lamb, who currently resides in Arlington, Va., is the host of Booknotes, a weekly show on C-SPAN that features interviews with popular non-fiction authors, more than 600 to date. He has published three books on the series.

This event is free of charge and open to the general public. A complete calendar of BC Convocations for 2002-03 can be found at www.berea.edu/convo.