THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 22, 1994 TAG: 9407200120
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 3B EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARLENE FORD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Buses aren't usually tourist attractions. But the canary yellow school bus that lumbered through Hampton Roads recently wasn't just any bus.
It was the 45-foot-long, 44,000-pound, one-year-and-28,000-mile old, C-SPAN TV studio.
C-SPAN, a cable network that specializes in public affairs broadcasting, and ``Cable in the Classroom'' programming is viewed in 60 million sites worldwide. It is funded by America's cable television companies as a public service, and although the home studio is in Washington, D.C., its on-location bus zigzags the country from Massachusetts to California 11 months a year.
Recently, the high-tech giant made its way up and down the highways of Hampton Roads stopping at Old Dominion University, a Portsmouth school and a Norfolk Boys and Girls Club. In Virginia Beach, it parked its wide load in the lot of Tandom's Pine Tree Inn.
Even before the official tours began a grandfather and grandson jumped the long last step off the bus.
Will Rice, 12, a student at Virginia Beach Middle School, said he liked all the technical equipment. Grandfather Pete Jones said, ``We came because we were curious. I watch C-SPAN. I like `Booknotes,' Congress - and I watched when Ross Perot was interviewed in Texas.''
The exterior of the bus was the eye-catcher, but the adults and children who stopped to take a look were wowed by the state-of-the-art interior. They, as did nearly 12,000 other fans last year, surveyed everything from the three TV cameras, tiny spot lights, fax machine and two computers to the snug bathroom hidden behind the studio.
``What about O.J.?'' a group of women who had come from lunch asked. They peered into rows of tiny monitors hoping for a last minute news break.
Bus driver Mike Connors, one of three crew members, explained, ``No, we don't do that kind of programming. We wouldn't follow him on a high speed chase down the highway. But if for any reason his case was to come before Congress, then we would be at the Congressional hearing.''
There are two reasons for the school bus tour. One, is to cover locally interesting sites, such as Nauticus and Monticello in Virginia, or to interview local public officials or authors such as ``Jurassic Park's'' Michael Crichton. The other is to demonstrate how C-Span's special programming, ``Cable in the Classroom,'' can be used as a teaching resource.
For 10 years ``Cable in the Classroom'' has been a public service initiative of the cable television industry. It's a joint project with local cable operators, such as Cox Cable in Virginia Beach, to provide schools with free basic cable service and more than 525 hours of educational programming each month.
``The thing that interests me,'' said Jan Ball, media specialist at Sherwood Forest Elementary School in Norfolk, ``Is that it travels all over the United States and brings back information - even going to original sites (like) to recreate the Lincoln-Douglas debates.''
The Lincoln-Douglas senatorial debates, set for August through October, are no soundbites, but full, meaty three-hour-long chunks.
On this day, Edie Weiss came with her children Lani, 5 and Jordana, 11, both Cape Henry Collegiate School students. ``They love looking around,'' she said as the kids crammed themselves into one chair at the computer console. ``And, what can I say? We're all news junkies.'' MEMO: For Information about C-SPAN and the ``Cable in the Classroom'' project,
call Helen Shropshire, education coordinator for Cox Cable, at
858-5219. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARLENE FORD
Mike Connors, driver and tour guide for the C-SPAN bus, explains how
the equipment on the bus works.
by CNB