Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network

Despite all the attention given to the inauguration of live television broadcasting of U.S. Senate sessions from the Capitol in Washington, a large number of Southern California cable-system subscribers will not have a chance to tune in the Senate chamber. The historic first televised session was broadcast Monday by C-SPAN, the Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network, on its primary channel already carried into millions of American homes.

Radio broadcasts from the Senate floor began Wednesday, marking what proponents hailed as a new era in openness after decades of complaints that going on the air would shatter tradition and decorum. "There's no turning back," Minority Leader Robert C. Byrd, (D-W.Va.) told an opening ceremony. "The Senate is crossing the bridge, and it's being burned behind us."

A new study of the audience of C-SPAN (Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network) found that the average viewer watches the program service about 12 hours a month, with 10% of the network's audience claiming to watch between 20 and 100 hours monthly. The survey, conducted by the Media Analysis Project of George Washington University, found that 7.8 million homes watch the service at least one hour each month.

The Senate, nervously and belatedly edging its way into the television era, voted Thursday to allow trial television and radio coverage of its proceedings. Under the painstakingly drafted resolution--passed 67 to 21--radio coverage of the Senate will begin almost immediately, with live television broadcasts following on June 1. In late July, the Senate will evaluate the experiment and decide whether to allow cameras and microphones to become permanent fixtures in the Senate chamber.

A Los Angeles City Council committee on Tuesday recommended a substantial fee increase and extensive new service requirements for cable television companies when their franchises come up for renewal in 1987. Officials said the proposed increase, from 3% to 5% of gross revenues, would boost city cable revenues from $2.1 million to at least $3.5 million. Cable companies, officials said, would probably pass the increase on to consumers.

It's election season, kids, so get ready to vote. OK, it may be true that 18 is the legal age for that, but it's never too early to develop the habit . . . so to speak. That's the idea being promoted this fall by some inventive high school and middle school teachers in the Valley. They are including assignments about the 1996 general election in their social studies, history, economics and media arts classes.

The Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network--best known as C-SPAN--will be recognized by its cable peers Sunday during "The 14th Annual CableACE Awards" ceremony, which will be telecast live on Lifetime Television. C-SPAN was established in 1979 with funding from the cable TV industry to provide gavel-to-gavel coverage of the House of Representatives. C-SPAN II was added in 1986 to cover the Senate. The network, available in 56 million homes, has a devoted following.

The congressional hearings on the Iran- contra scandal, which will begin today and stretch through the summer, could become the most gripping Washington drama since the televised hearings that turned many Americans into "Watergate junkies" 14 years ago. "It will be nothing beyond the normal four-ring circus," said one harried committee spokesman, who estimated that he has been answering almost 200 calls a day from the news media.

OK, C-SPAN insomniacs, get a good grip on your remote controls. Beginning Wednesday, you will see something unusual on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives: an authentic Oxford-style debate, unsullied by cheap sound bites, in which politicians attempt to discuss the most pressing issues of the day. Say what?