“A historic presidential race to the White House brought a $1 million bus to campus. The C-SPAN Campaign 2008 Bus rolled into campus Wednesday morning on its mission to raise awareness regarding the presidential election. We’ve got two busses traveling across the country, C-SPAN Marketing Rep.”
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A historic presidential race to the White House brought a $1 million bus to campus.

The C-SPAN Campaign 2008 Bus rolled into campus Wednesday morning on its mission to raise awareness regarding the presidential election.

We’ve got two busses traveling across the country, C-SPAN Marketing Rep. Jeremy Art said. It’s a pretty historical election.

Art cited the fact that all three presidential candidates are firsts. Barack Obama is the first black American, Hillary Clinton is the first woman and John McCain is the oldest candidate to ever run for the presidency.

The bus, which is a mobile television studio, travels across the country, and headed to Pennsylvania for the primaries later on this month. Currently, the bus is motoring its way downward through Ohio from Cleveland to UA and then to Canton McKinley and a few other cities before it gets to Columbus for a teachers’ conference on Friday.

We’re going to all of the places because Time Warner asked us to, Art said. Wherever we go, we call the local cable affiliate and ask where we should go.

C-SPAN is paid for by the cable industry and is a non-profit organization. According to the C-SPAN Web site, the company is created by cable, offered as a public service.

According to Art, about five cents for every cable bill pays for everything the bus will require on tour.

The bus is a full production studio on wheels that, cost $1 million. The only difference between the bus and another studio however, is a lack of an interviewer. C-SPAN does not use a real person to interview anyone, but rather asks questions to candidates from another place in order to eliminate any forms of bias.

The bus was only in Akron between 9 and 11 a.m. Students who stopped by the bus were invited in for a quick session about what C-SPAN is and a viewing of video clips made on the bus of presidential candidate interviews.

Students coming off the bus were enthusiastic about its stop at UA.

I thought it was pretty cool and pretty sweet that they stopped in Akron because they travel all over the country, freshman Nick Mancuso said. It’s pretty cool that they showed us what it’s all about.

The turnout on campus was great.

It’s been one of the best stops I’ve ever been at, Art said. The whole time I’ve been here, it’s just kind of standing room only.

While many students turned out to see the bus, many students had the same question for Art.

People say ‘why Akron?’ And I say why not, Art said. There’s just as many voters in Akron as anywhere else.

According to Art, approximately 91 million households across the U.S. have C-SPAN. We’re non-profit, he said. We have no commercials.

The C-SPAN Web site offers the company’s information. According to the site, C-SPAN is a private and non-profit company created by cable television industry in 1979 as a public service. Its mission is to provide public access to the political process. The Web site also says the company receives no funding from the government and operates solely from cable and satellite providers’ funding.

Because of this, Art said, C-SPAN is able to cover full events and speeches when most news networks only provide clips or highlights.

Students who visited the bus only had one complaint.

I wish it was here longer, DeFratis said.

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” #1.1361087:3662697542.jpg:20080410_cspan1_cb.jpg:C-SPAN’s mobile campaign bus and television studio was parked between Olin Hall and Bierce Library Wednesday morning from 9 to 11 a.m.:Christopher Bair”