. >> in august 1977, bob rosencrans, president of ua/columbia cable and business partner ken gunter,ere the first cable operators to agree to support the idea for c-span. at that time only about 19 percent of american homes were wired for cable. mr. rosencrans, who passed away this week, wrote a check for $25,000. with that seed money, c-span created the infrastructure to send out cable television's first live views of the u.s. house of representatives. on march 19th, 1979, to some 3.5 million homes, served by 350 cable systems. >> let the public understand what goes on in washington, what the issues are and how to deal with them. and i think above all, the mission here at c-span has been just that. and we're very proud of that. >> mr. rosencrans steered the non-profit network through its initial challenging years and continued to serve on c-span's board of directors until his death most recently in the role of chairman emeritus. >> i believe a nation can only benefit from more exposure to our political process, to educate and inform our people, both young and old, and give us all a