C-SPAN bus makes visit to Grand Strand

Students at St. James High School in Horry County got a unique glimpse inside a rolling television studio as CSPAN brought its “Campaign 2008” bus to town Thursday morning.

The 45-foot bus is a TV studio, but CSPAN staffers also use it to talk with students about what CSPAN does, what it broadcasts, and how the information it puts out is important during busy election times like these.

CSPAN began in 1979, and is funded solely by portions of cable subscriptions. The networks operate on roughly $55 million a year, which equals about a nickel from every cable subscription every month. Since CSPAN doesn’t air commercials on any of its three channels, it can’t take in advertising revenue like ESPN, CNN, MTV and others. That means those channels each get several dollars per subscription in revenue every month.

Chelsea Bayliff visited the bus with her 11th grade U.S. History class Thursday morning. She admits she isn’t an avid CSPAN viewer.

“If I just happen to be flipping by, sometimes I stop if anything catches my eye,“ Bayliff said.

But she admits there is real value in the information she learned from the CSPAN employees.

“Even though a lot of peole my age can’t vote, they still need to be informed about the election, and what’s going on in the world,“ she said.

“It’s a chance to talk to students about media, about how media can impact them, as well as government, and how government impacts them,“ said Meredith Rapp, Education Program Specialist for CSPAN.

Rapp said the current financial bailout bill before Congress is a perfect time for people to tune in to CSPAN.

“It’s a great time for people to see how the process works, and they can see it first-hand, since we don’t edit anything,“ she said.

The bus rolls on to Columbia Thursday night, where social studies teachers will tour it as part of a conference there this weekend.