Brian Lamb, C-SPAN's chairman and former chief executive officer, conceived C-SPAN in 1975 while working as the Washington, D.C., bureau chief of the cable industry trade magazine Cablevision.[2] It was a time of rapid growth in the number of cable television channels available in the United States.[2] Lamb envisioned a cable-industry financed nonprofit network for televising sessions of the U.S. Congress, other public affairs events, and policy discussions.[4][5] Lamb shared his idea with several cable executives, who helped him launch the network.