The musical Brian Lamb

C-SPAN founder and executive chairman Brian Lamb carries himself with mature seriousness and like Calvin Coolidge wastes few words—but as a teenager in Lafayette, Ind., he was an entertainer. The current issue of WORLD Magazine contains interview highlights, but we didn’t have room on paper for some surprising and little-known background about one of the most respected executives in television news.

You were a teenage disk jockey. I had a half hour radio show to play records. Then we started a program at one of the local parks in the summer: a two-hour nightly radio show to attract young people to come out to the park.

What was the scene like? We built a mobile unit with two turntables inside the van, a big speaker on the outside, and spun records for two hours, from 7 to 9. We called it “Summer in the Park.” I’d interview folks on the spot for the local audience.

Would people be dancing? Not there. But I put some more money in my pocket by doing record hops. I would go out to a school, or we used to have a teenage nightclub in downtown Lafayette, where kids would come. Obviously no alcohol served. That was all part of trying to earn enough money to pay for college.

Was Dick Clark your role model? Dick Clark was one of the great entrepreneurs in the history of television. Before he went national he had a daily one-hour show on a Philadelphia station. He would spin records and have kids in from the Philadelphia neighborhoods to dance. He’d invite a lot of stars to come by and make people, by appearing on his show, into very popular figures. But I don’t think he was my role model, but I talked the local television station manager into doing a show like that for a local audience.

What did you have in common with Ringo Starr? Not much, except I was a drummer. I started out when I was 10 playing the drums and played all through high school. It was another way to make money for tuition.

Your parents took you to the Eisenhower inaugural and put up with your drumming. They sound like good parents. They bought me my first drum.

And they didn’t regret it later? They never said they did, but they might have. I would have if I had been them.

What was your favorite kind of music? Probably rock and roll. Today it’s a toss-up between Latin, country music, and I still love big band.

In a counter-factual history, could you be a drummer for Merle Haggard? That would have been a kick. I don’t know if I was that good. I love being in a band, and I was in all kinds of bands: Dixieland, rock and roll, big band. I could have very easily become an entertainer instead of what I did, if certain things hadn’t happened.