I personally think that we have to really look beyond television if we really want to get our product noticed. Sure it would be great to get drum corps on more tv stations or even get drum corps on to a major network station, but this kind of thing costs money and takes a lot of time (and a lot more paperwork and legal hoops to jump through) then it is worth.
Right now you are online reading this and wondering what other avenue there is to market drum corps out to the masses. I am here to tell you that you are looking at it. The internet and video on demand are the future of how people will be getting their programming. Instead of trying to rely on traditional methods of reaching a mass audience, why not be more cutting edge and get in on the beginning of this "internet tv" wave? It takes far less time and far less money to make this all possible and lets face it the dvd and cd companies aren't going to lose their money because the market for drum corps truly is a niche market and people like you and me are still going to buy our dvd's and cd's at the end of the year.
Even if people see drum corps on tv they have the opportunity to turn it off or to watch something else. People who really want to watch drum corps are restricted to some networks tv schedule and might miss the broadcast entirely. Bring the video to the internet and you solve this problem. You could even have an RSS feed in iTunes and charge per view or for the complete download itself. The companies that produce the cd's and dvd's don't lose money and we can watch the shows that we want to see when we want to see them. Don't think for a minute that this is something that is difficult to do. All it takes is a little bit of time and the proper resources. I myself have a show available on iTunes and guess what? I pay $0 to put anything online.
This is really cutting edge stuff here and it's something that we should really take advantage of. Bring drum corps to it's market instead of waiting for the market to find drum corps. The popularity will spread faster that way then showing drum corps on PBS, Spike TV, ESPN, or any other major network. Remember what I said, people can always change the television station. This is a solution that offers the drum corps fan can embrace and enjoy.
Another thing I would propose is the free sharing of information and video. Make the video available to be embedded and downloaded into other websites. Make it a lower quality of course so that way people will want to buy the high quality version. Believe me, the internet is the real future of television. I have been working with it for six months now and the possibilities are limitless. Think outside the box with em on this one and see the possibilities.