Newseditor44

That would be soooooooooooooo sweet! I am so in!

Oh Todd, does though have more horns?

I'll take that PR! Heck, I marched a King Euph my first year in corps... that's almost like holding a contra up in front of you for 12 minutes.

Ah, anyone have a Bari I can borrow? Can I play two valve?

Has to be wheat, doctors orders... As long as Turner becomes my personal assistant on tour, marking all of my drill spots, polishing my horn, so on and so forth! Oh, and Ryan, we should invest in a defib unit, just in case! Wouldn't it be great to have an MI during a show, have the drill instructor run down to the field and yell "CLEAR!!!", shock me, and then jump back into formation! What a hype! Ok, I'm in

For a t-shirt and a ham sandwich, I am so there!

And does this mean we are eating Ham Sandwiches? (Look at me, saying "we" like I am in the corps... lol)

People fighting over me... I like this :D now wait until you hear me play, you can ask anyone who marched with me ... I'll be the first member traded for a "player to be named later"

Would this be considered, dare I say.... evil?

next thing you know, Roger is going to tell me its doesn't matter how long its been since I have marched, that I need to get my butt out there and do it anyway.

Glen - I have $12 and some change, will that do it? b**bs

I wanna play too.... Can I play woodblock? Seriously though, its been 15 years since I picked up a horn, but being back in the OC, I would love to march again.

Thats because it was LOUD!

The straight, honest to god truth of the matter is this, there is no power in drum corps anymore. There is no such thing as loud. There is no more park and blow. The power is gone, only to be replaced by a new term, one that describes drum corps more suttle approach... NICE. Since DCI voted to eliminate G bugels, the sound has changed completely. Don't say it hasn't, you and I both know you are lying. No more balls out move the seats back five feet sound.... it's all very NICE music. No more RFL chords... it's just NICE music. No power, no intensity, no hearing loss from sitting five feet from the Devils victory performance after the show. It's all just NICE music. Remember back in the day when you could hear Madison's hornline from several miles away? Remember when hornlines had a full, rich sound that could fill an empty stadium? Remember the days when 10 contras were enough? Yah, me too. The Power in drum corps is long gone, and will probably never come back again. Maybe DCI's new marketing slogan should be "We aren't your fathers drum corps, we're a kinder, gentler drum corps... er... Marching Band Electronic Ensamble" Commentary off....

How about a bake sale! People love bake sales... :D

Ok, if you would like to find that funny, go ahead, not stopping you. Wrong, ratings matter if you are a top 100 show whose lifeblood depends on ratings. But the fact of the matter is this show does not. The time was purchased, that is correct, but what is more important is the fact that ESPN believes this product is worthy enough of a place on its air in prime time. The programming executives who made the agreement with ESPN believe that DCI's broadcast featured enough of what they were looking for to be a solid fit with their programming beliefs. They were not looking for huge ratings (DCI already guaranteed that ESPN would make money buy paying up front for the broadcast). Plus (and I could be wrong) but national ratings are usually only listed for the top 100 shows weekly. To put this into perspective, there are over 400 cable channels available (that number is probably higher), which means there are over 400 programs available to watch at any given time. Multiply that times the numbers of hours in a week and you have thousands of programs that DCI would be competing against just to make the top 100. Regardless, can someone give me a good explanation as to why it matters if the show breaks the top 100 in ratings? Or why we need ratings at all? It will not affect the chance of the activity having a similar opportunity for a broadcast in the years to come.

Daniel - great post! Dan - I think the amount of growth can be controlled, and this is done by having a strategy, and knowing where you want to take the orginization as a whole. That said, DCI does need to get out of the mentality they are in and focus on some serious marekting campaigns. They have a total of one person in marketing full time, but need more experience and a fresh approach.

Is there any reason why it matters? I am sure whatever Regiment decides to do, it will be great, and done with the class we have come to know and expect.

I am sure that there are real ratings numbers across the boards for every program, but these ratings become so small that it makes little or no sense to the people who use the ratings to actually list them, which is why for the most part, we only get the top 100 national ratings weekly. In other words, for the ratings to show up, the program would have to rate in the top 100 for the week in order to make the list. I am sure there is a long, conveluted way of finding the ratings, but that would take a few phone calls to neilsen and then some heavy duty computing. In fact, with the limited amount of Neilsen homes out there now, it would be completly understandable if the program got NO viewership what so ever. The real question that needs to be asked is... what does this mean? In realative terms, nothing at all. Ratings are not going to make a dent in ESPN's decision to rebroadcast the show. DCI bought the space, meaning they paid DCI a fee and allwoed them to take some of the advertising revenue in return for airing the program. DCI paid for the production and agreed to meet ESPN's broadcast standards. As long as the space is available in the future, DCI should be able to secure space again. You have to remember, ESPN had to approval the sale of the space before DCI dci was able to air its product. They don't just sell their air time to anyone, especially prime time. its a win win situation, ESPN makes revenue from DCI programing, and DCI gets a two hour slot to promote the activity. Ratings mean nothing....

DCI did not "peg" on the Neilsen ratings chart for last tuesday night, meaning statiscally, there were not enough households watching to make a dent in raitings. This means nothing though, absolutely nothing.

Won't make any difference. First off, the number probably will not be on the scale at all. Second, DCI bought the time from ESPN, so as long as they continue to "buy" the time slots, ESPN will continue to put them on.

Honestly, I could care less WHERE in So Cal, just as long as its in So Cal!!!

Sounds about right Stef. I am surprised Dan said anything, especially after the 2000 season, but he must be confident enough that it will happen. I suspect they have a little more research to do before signing the contracts. I would look for them to do the deal in January or so. Also, was told by someone that San Diego was NOT considered becuase of conflicts with the San Diego Chargers and field use.

Set down the crack pipe and slowly walk away... there are support groups for these kinds of things. Buffalo?!?!

Amen... I know some NASCAR drivers that would be afraid of the 110!!!