By Dave Evensen

In another life, had Rob Kennedy ’78 ENG ended up at one of the big, flashy news channels, you might have seen him in a network promo by now, proclaiming him A FACE YOU CAN TRUST. He makes that impression.

Flash wasn’t in the cards for Kennedy, however. At 52, he’s co-president and co-chief operating officer at Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network. The comparatively small television news company (better known as C-SPAN) eschews the pursuit of ratings in favor of bringing to America’s living rooms the unfiltered, day-to-day workings of democracy.

C-SPAN was a fledgling network in the early 1980s when its charismatic founder, Brian Lamb, explained to Kennedy the vision that convinced cable companies to form the network as a public service. At C-SPAN, there was to be full, uncut coverage of government functions, including Congressional hearings, testimonies and speeches. There was to be balance. There would be no commercial breaks. No agendas. C-SPAN was to be the fly on the wall, the quiet camera in the back of the room, missing nothing.

Though never previously gripped by a strong interest in government, Kennedy found the concept intriguing.

“I said, ‘There’s a simplicity and also a purity to that that’s very appealing,’” he recalled.

John P. “Jack” Frazee, the former cable executive who first introduced Kennedy to C-SPAN, describes the relationship between Kennedy and the network as if it were meant to be.

“He fell in love with the organization, and they fell in love with him,” Frazee said. “It was a match made in heaven.”

Today, more than two decades later, Kennedy can claim a formative role in bringing the network to full-fledged status. With programming spread over three television channels, radio and a growing Web site, the company employs 260 people, including 45 on the camera crews. While C-SPAN doesn’t track its ratings (in order to avoid influencing its coverage), the Pew Research Center reports some 52 million Americans watch its programming either regularly or sometimes; after CNN, it’s considered the most credible news network.

And Kennedy takes the mission of C-SPAN fully to heart. The network doesn’t take sides in Washington, and neither does he. Just try to find out where he falls on the political spectrum.

“No comment,” he said, with a laugh. “One of my daughters said, ‘I hope one day you’ll tell us because we sure can’t figure it out.’ That made me feel pretty good.”
           
In describing how he eventually landed at C-SPAN, Kennedy hearkens back to his Springfield childhood, where he grew up in a close-knit family possessing an entrepreneurial spirit. As a boy, he would follow his grandfather, William Schnirring, around his store during the man’s frequent strolls to chat with whomever he encountered.

Kennedy was struck that his grandfather was the same at work as during a family gathering. He was always interested in the people around him, always honest and always liked.

Frazee saw that same trait years later when he hired Kennedy out of business school to work at Chicago-based Centel Corp. It was 1980, and Centel, then primarily a phone company, was expanding in the new and growing cable TV market.

Frazee, then head of corporate development, said Kennedy’s business skills were terrific but recalled an intangible quality as well – in his face, his humble manner and his steady, calm voice. In a business sense, Kennedy was perfect for screening corporate acquisitions. Executives of companies on the buying block opened up to him like a book.

“They enjoyed working with him, they trusted him, and they were very free in sharing their information with him, which is so important when you make an acquisition,” said Frazee. “They saw right through him. They knew he had great character and was a very straightforward person.”

But that’s skipping ahead a bit for a man who places such significance on his past.  Kennedy’s first job some 40 years ago was earning $6 a week delivering the now defunct weekly, the Springfield Sun.

“It was actually very important,” he said. “Think of your customers as real people. Be available to them. Take their calls. Knock on their door. And I had to knock on their door to collect.”

Any job that puts a young person in contact with customers, he added, is a good thing.

Through high school Kennedy also participated in Boy Scouts and worked at his grandfather’s store, Springfield Electric Supply Co., now run by Kennedy’s uncle, William R. Schnirring ’50 BUS. Kennedy also frequented football games at the University of Illinois, Alma Mater of his mother, Marilyn Schnirring Kennedy ’52 COM, and his uncle.
           
The decision for Kennedy to also attend the U of I was a natural one, considering his knack for math, science and electronics. (His younger sister, Janice Kennedy Singer ’85 BUS, would make the same choice a few years later.) While at the University, he majored in electrical engineering and met Cynthia Marchigiani ’77 FAA (now Kennedy), whom he would eventually marry.

(Though their three children aren’t Illinois alumni, they can name the starting lineups for the U of I’s men’s basketball team for the past dozen years. “I always had the feeling that orange and blue were right for me,” Kennedy said.)

As an undergrad, he studied under renowned engineering professors such as the late Mac Van Valkenburg and Murray Babcock ’48 ENG, MS ’49 ENG, PHD ’60 ENG. Although electrical engineering has evolved exponentially since Kennedy left, he said much of what he learned, such as problem-solving skills, transcended technological advances.

These skills applied in business, an affinity for which Kennedy never lost, even while immersed in engineering. While on campus, he took courses in economics and accounting and worked summers in the store. After graduation, Kennedy enrolled at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, interning at Centel in 1979.

Kennedy liked the company but, unconvinced by its original job offer, accepted a position elsewhere a year later. Little did he know that “elsewhere” wasn’t yet in the grand scheme of things – not in Jack Frazee’s mind.

“There’s a certain segment of the population that wants to go beyond what they read in newspapers or what they see on the news networks.”

Frazee had a nose for talent, and he saw it in Kennedy. One night after he had turned down Centel’s offer, Kennedy’s phone rang. He heard Frazee’s outraged voice.

“What are you doing going with that other company?” Kennedy recounted Frazee saying. “You gotta come work for me and [then CEO and UI alumnus] Bob Reuss ’39 bus at Centel. We’re going to get you involved in corporate development, you’re going to be doing some work on cable television, you’re going to be buying cable companies. You gotta come talk to me about that.”

“So I said, ‘Okay!’” Kennedy recalled.

“I know if [Frazee] hadn’t been persuasive, and Bob Reuss hadn’t given me the opportunities that he had given, then I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Kennedy became an important player at Centel, where Frazee assigned him to help create a five-year business plan for its cable television division. Later, Kennedy would devise another five-year plan – this time for C-SPAN, on whose board Frazee sat. He sent Kennedy to Washington, D.C., to meet C-SPAN’s staff and help set up a business plan that carried the network through a critical stage in the mid-1980s. The experience would stay with him.

Four years later, in 1987, when the need arose for a business person at C-SPAN, Lamb’s offer was one that Kennedy could not resist. He’s been at C-SPAN ever since.

If it were big media Kennedy was after, C-SPAN would have been the wrong move. The network has an annual budget of just over $50 million, less than one-tenth that of CNN’s. While other networks rely heavily on advertising,
C-SPAN’s budget is paid for by a license fee of a nickel per month per subscribing household (in contrast, ESPN’s license fee is about $3 per home per month).

Those comparisons aren’t apples-to-apples, however. In fact, Kennedy doesn’t even consider the bigger networks his competitors. He and Cynthia regularly spend part of their evening watching newscasts on other channels – he even likes them – and he feels no conflict.

“I think we all play different roles, and we have different viewership bases,” Kennedy said. “We’re an addition.” While the ideologies, race, gender and education of C-SPAN viewers generally mirror those of the general public, “there’s a certain segment of the population that wants to go beyond what they read in the newspapers or what they see on the news networks,” he said.

Each afternoon at C-SPAN, an editorial group meets to select the next day’s coverage, based on its public policy impact – in other words, no O.J. Simpson trials – and a balance of views. Congressional hearings are prime material. Many viewers also appreciate the company’s coverage of foreign government, including the lively British Parliament.

C-SPAN also covers political campaigns, including a popular segment during the primaries and caucuses where the company puts wireless microphones on candidates and films them as they mingle with voters. “You get a really good sense as to how the candidates relate to people,” Kennedy said.

C-SPAN plans gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Republican and Democratic conventions this summer. “The networks have slowly kind of cut back on their convention coverage,” he said, “but that’s all we’ll basically do when the conventions are in session. We’ll cover the floor, so you’ll see all the speeches, you’ll see the up-and-coming stars of each party.”

Kennedy’s own role at C-SPAN began as vice president for business affairs. He went through several promotions until his latest in 2006, when he was named to his present leadership positions. In addition to dealing with financial issues, Kennedy works with the network’s engineers and technical staff, constantly evaluating new technology and new ways of delivering coverage.

And the coverage doesn’t wear thin on him. “If you stay in Washington this long and especially if you watch a lot of … news,” Kennedy said, “you become less interested in who wins, but you become really interested in sort of the process and the strategies and the tactics one side will use.

“I liken it to college basketball,” he said. “If Illinois is not in the Final Four, I’ll still watch the games, but I’ll watch them because I’m interested in basketball and to see how one team reacts to the other and so forth, not really caring who wins.”

While Kennedy focuses on improving C-SPAN’s coverage, that’s not to say that he’s isolated from mail or calls that indicate how much the network’s efforts are appreciated. Times like these make his job greatly gratifying. Similar moments come when Kennedy sees Lamb walking the halls, chatting with employees, reminding Kennedy of his grandfather and the atmosphere that he loves so much at the network.

Then Kennedy will get back to work, making sure that operations run smoothly and that C-SPAN’s future is secure. He’ll remember people like Jack Frazee and Bob Reuss, and he’ll remind himself to give young people under his watch the same thing that he was given: opportunity.

Evensen is a freelance writer living in Champaign.