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I know no one will pay attention to this but I'll put it out there anyway. Why is Punkin Chunkin (PC) on TV and not DCI

PC is Stupid and doesn't take alot of thinking to watch and appreaciate. 77% of the people watching TV don't want to think

PC is TV perfect. It can be edited to show 2 to 4 chunks before a commercial.

Almost anyone can be a chunker, young, old black (no yet) and white, Rich or poor.

PC is growing not dying. It started in Delaware (my home state) and now had teams from 10 different states.

People are wearing funny hats and people love funny hats.

Everyone has a chance to win and I mean everyone.

Theres alot of interesting back stories.

DCI wants you to figure out why a show is called Purple when the music hasn't anything to do with purple until someone explains it to you.

A DCI show runs what 10-12 mins. That means they can only show 4 corps per hour. Less commercial time for sponsors which less money for the network. Editing a show kills the product becuase now you have to do more explaining about the show. Back in the day a PBS show was 4 hours.

The attitude is that only certain people can march DCI (true) and showing this All American Kid (usually white, usually good looking which makes people will think he/she is rich) in background stories doesn't work. Are you going to show how some kid is struggling to march while his Dad is out of work....really. Or the kid who travelled across country to fullfil her dream of marching in the best of the best. Excuse me while I go to the food bank.

ARe you going to show the top 4-12-17-25. theres only so many corps. So who gets on TV. Once again the top 12 win out and the corps who need the exposure lose out.

The hats on corps aren't really that funnny and people like funny hats.

9 times out of 9 1/2 we know who will win. There will never be a tiime in Drum Corps when a 4th 6th 9th place corps comes from behind and wins. People like to root for the underdogs to win. That doesn't and never will in DCI.

See above about back stories. Now is not the time to talk about people paying thousands of dollars to march in a band (becaue that what people think it is)

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It's also a HELL of a lot easier to understand. Technical details aside...whoever sends it the farthest wins....easy.

They show figure skating on tv. I can speak directly about this because my brother who I marched with in 09 was a national competitive figure skater up until a few years ago. And i can tell you the figure skating nich is just as small, if not smaller than DC. And I can tell you right now, that if there ratings were held up by people who actually understood the technicality and scoring of figure skating, you wouldnt see it on tv anymore. Shoot, they even made it harder to understand after they changed the scoring. But technical details aside.... whoever skates the best wins. People watch figure skating for many of the same reasons that people would watch drum corps. Technical details aside.... whoever plays, marches, and spins the best wins. Give people credit, when shown, they certainly know the difference between marching band and drum corps. And even if people dont know why one corps edges out another, they will still pick their favorites and root for them. People outside of drum corps may be clueless, but they arent stupid. If you build it... they will come.

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9 times out of 9 1/2 we know who will win. There will never be a tiime in Drum Corps when a 4th 6th 9th place corps comes from behind and wins. People like to root for the underdogs to win. That doesn't and never will in DCI.

1988?

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They show figure skating on tv. I can speak directly about this because my brother who I marched with in 09 was a national competitive figure skater up until a few years ago. And i can tell you the figure skating nich is just as small, if not smaller than DC. And I can tell you right now, that if there ratings were held up by people who actually understood the technicality and scoring of figure skating, you wouldnt see it on tv anymore. Shoot, they even made it harder to understand after they changed the scoring. But technical details aside.... whoever skates the best wins. People watch figure skating for many of the same reasons that people would watch drum corps. Technical details aside.... whoever plays, marches, and spins the best wins. Give people credit, when shown, they certainly know the difference between marching band and drum corps. And even if people dont know why one corps edges out another, they will still pick their favorites and root for them. People outside of drum corps may be clueless, but they arent stupid. If you build it... they will come.

youre right BUT skating is also an olympic sport demanding more attention and endorsed and liked by celebrity as well as endorsers alike. People may know or see the difference between Marching band and drum corps BUT even drum corps people when explaining what we do to an outsider, many if not most start with " we are kinda like a marching band just more professional" MAybe we are part of the blame...who knows.

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youre right BUT skating is also an olympic sport demanding more attention and endorsed and liked by celebrity as well as endorsers alike. People may know or see the difference between Marching band and drum corps BUT even drum corps people when explaining what we do to an outsider, many if not most start with " we are kinda like a marching band just more professional" MAybe we are part of the blame...who knows.

Great post. I stopped doing this years ago,intentionally. Now I start at the other end. Instead of describing it I simply repeat it's name: "It's drums and bugles and color guard on a football field" even though I know we don't use bugles any more. I'll make that correction if the person shows interest. But I don't start with "marching" nor do I even mention competition. I just let the person asking form their own visual about what "drums and bugles on a football field" might look like.

If we believe that most think of marching band, and I do, then I don't mention marching band. I'll let them come to that themselves and describes the differences if they ask questions.

Works for me, anyway.

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Can someone tell me why the Bayou Classic is Televised? Don't bother its because of the bands. How about the Honda Classic...bands. Why are these bands always featured on TV and in movies.....Bueller...Bueller.....Because they entertain the hell out of shows. They play music everyone can sing along to or have heard at least 100 times. I would say that out of the top 12 many everyday non drum corps fans would not recognize most of the music, let alone understand the "themes" of the shows.

Why is Ice Skating a staple of TV. Because its entertaining and once again doesn't require thought.

Someone asked why doesn't Dougie Fresh sell alot of records even though he was one of the best rappers of all time. The answer was he was better in concert then on record. Its the same thing with Drum Corps. You have to see it live to really understand it. You have to give it the timie needed. Editing a 11 min show to 5 mins kills the product. And no channel is going to give 4 hours for a single telecast.

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They show figure skating on tv. I can speak directly about this because my brother who I marched with in 09 was a national competitive figure skater up until a few years ago. And i can tell you the figure skating nich is just as small, if not smaller than DC. And I can tell you right now, that if there ratings were held up by people who actually understood the technicality and scoring of figure skating, you wouldnt see it on tv anymore. Shoot, they even made it harder to understand after they changed the scoring. But technical details aside.... whoever skates the best wins. People watch figure skating for many of the same reasons that people would watch drum corps. Technical details aside.... whoever plays, marches, and spins the best wins. Give people credit, when shown, they certainly know the difference between marching band and drum corps. And even if people dont know why one corps edges out another, they will still pick their favorites and root for them. People outside of drum corps may be clueless, but they arent stupid. If you build it... they will come.

figure skating however has a revolving 4 year interest curve. it's called the Olympics. The average person doesnt watch worlds, nationals etc, but when the Olympics roll around they watch.

Drum corps will need an every year audience

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I watched PC, and I find it to be wildly entertaining, and not mindless at all. Granted, as a Mythbusters fan I appreciate science more than the average drum corps fan. To be perfectly frank, I enjoyed PC much more than most drum corps shows in recent years. I thought it was a great show.

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I watched PC, and I find it to be wildly entertaining, and not mindless at all. Granted, as a Mythbusters fan I appreciate science more than the average drum corps fan. To be perfectly frank, I enjoyed PC much more than most drum corps shows in recent years. I thought it was a great show.

I'm with you on Mythbusters! :thumbup:

Not so sure about Punkin Chunkin. :tongue:

Right up there with Hillbilly Handfishin. :smile:

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