ADrumCorpsNut

http://mobile.nola.com/advnola/pm_103997/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=Sd4J9bwD I know that there is a thread on the world class board but folks who regularly post here may not see the link. RIP Marty Hurley, one of drum corps' truly great people...

This is sad news indeed, so many drum corps benefited from his work like the Bleu Raeders, where I got to know him, and Phantom Regiment. :-( RIP Mr. Hurley and keep that little finger tucked in...

I ordered my copy but geez! 13.46 for shipping (ground) and handling!

Awesome News!!! Congrats Marty!

I found one pic of the Muchachos playing Vistalites, but I cannot link i here for some reason.

Wow, Vistalites! I only remember 2 other corps' playing these; the Muchachos and the Kilties.

*sigh* It's becoming less popular now.

One other point I wanted to make on evolution of the activity / art form; I do not think that we exausted all of the possibilities of a 2 valved G bugle before we moved on to the 3 valved one...and so on up the evolutionary ladder. I appreciate where drill has gone and even today's drill writers will harken back to some very old school days and those moments always draw thunderous applause when done well. If you doubt that have just one corps hit an 8 count high mark time properly placed and the crowd will respond.

The arguement that I have seen every time that this is said is that (paraphrasing). "there are 15 teenagers to fill the void for each complainer who isn't spending money". I have not seen the stats or spreadsheets to support that though, and what little math I have seen has been suspect at best.

Unfortunately your simple math does not work out - if $42,000 is 5% of the budget that means that the corps has a budget of $840,000.00. So if $42000.00 represents 0.05% o a corps' budget that means that the corps has a budget of $84,000,000.00 - and a corps with that kind of budget is nowhere to be found, but you're right - the loss of $42,000 in revenue would be a pittance to them. One thing us Dino's can do, and it is why we have extra spending cash for souvies, is math.

Listen to the soprano solo in Anaheim's 1974 show, Tower of Power's So Very Hard to Go

We didn't have a member council so much that I remember but I do recall that the various captains (horn, drum and guard) all had appropriately decorated boat paddles. I can recall a couple of times after lights out that there were certain folks not present right at lights out, the distant sound of paddle meeting a soft-fleshy area and the re-emergence of missing members crawling into sleeping bags. The drum captain's paddle had holes drilled in it - I got to meet it once, under less than favorable conditions. Those holes served to make the experience more painful. They sure couldn't do that today.

Me too, shoulda' been a top 100 list.

In no particular order as favorites; Marching on to the field the first time. 1972 The first time I saw Argonne and Des Plaines (it was the same contest in some little town in the midwest) SCV Bottle Dance (any year) 1973 Troopers 1974 Anaheim Kingsmen - So Very Hard to Go (Tower of Power) 1976 Blue Devils Channel One Suite 1980 Holy Name Cadets (or whatever they go by today) One Voice 1988 Madison Scouts Malguena (it was hard to choose the year here) 1990 Star of Indiana 2004 Cavaliers I really could go on and on here as I have so many favorite performances.

Let's say I started a collection and it has a Slingerland TDR and an older Ludwig bass drum in it. I want to add some valve/rotor bugles - where do I look? I have kept my eye on eBay and so few come up.

Wow, there is a lot of intelligent conversation going on here. And Tom I appreciate your view but I do believe that DCI has something marketable to more than bandos, alumni and parents. There are truckloads of niches out there getting lots of eyeballs outside of their primary circle of influence. I agree with grass roots efforts including having corps perform more than just contests. I can remember performing at grand openings, malls, parades, McDonald's - you name it. Whether we got any money for those appearances I have no idea, but they did spread goodwill and exposure to the activity. Drum corps in your face (the very first time I saw a drum line I knew that I had to be a part of that and I saw that drum line in exhibition at a marching band contest in '69 or '70) sells better than anything and anything sells better than nothing at all. I have no ideas if corps' still do standstills in the park or rent out ensembles for the holidays. I know that some organizations do much more than drum corps, I wonder what the effect is on their programs. I also think that maybe something else should be cut in favor of advertising geared to attracting new fans. I have no idea what DCI's budget looks like so I have no idea where cuts could be made. I just know that advertising works. I do know that if "we" don't get more butts in the seats that the activity will be spoken of by us dinosaurs young and old as a fond memory.

Actually Michael, everytime that scenario runs through my head I see you as a regularly featured "opinionist" on the show. Of course I have imagined myself as host, I have a voice made for radio (which I did in the late 70's / early 80's) and a face to match! I see Rondo or Cesario or maybe some more youthful drum corps communications majors running with this. If only I had unlimited money....heck, even just a bunch of it....I would put that cart before that horse. That kind of sustained information, education and promotion would do worlds of good for the activity.

I didn't realize it was two years, thanks for making me aware of that. I am not sure why I didn't recall that. I can see why market research showed minimal new ticket sales and probably could have predicted that before the case. Something televised in September isn't going to translate to ticket sales the next June - Aug because that viewing public has long since forgotten the televised event. It amounted to reaching out to those who really already knew about the activity and gave them all the ability to say, "WOW! Our little corner of the world is on a major broadcast channel!" We catered the egg to the chicken or vice-versa I know that it is costly and we all know that most advertising doesn't even register with consumers until the 3rd or 4th time that they see it. As I mentioned before, when things get tight the first thing that gets cut is promotional funds which, to me, is counter-intuitive. I would find another area to cut and continue to promote to get customers through the door. Those who have done this in the business world have been very sound and successful. [my imagination] Imagine a weekly show where there are scores, highlights, color analysis, interviews,etc. that leads up to a season finale that is longer and well produced featuring finals. It covers the entire range of drum corps and uses some of the patterns that reality TV has used (text messaging as an example) to gather fan votes, what we want to see next week, etc. I know that this requires money and a lot of it, but what would it do for the activity? [/my imagination]

I agree with this, DCI is certainly not as niche as it has kept itself. It appears to be a chicken/egg thing. If you put more butts in the seats you will get more participation. If you get more participation there is more impetus for corps creation even if they are local or regional corps.

IIRC there used to be many more than this at finals. If so, then drum corps either lost a lot of fans or the grass roots thing isn't actively working. I know that drum corps isn't for everyone but it would seem to me that a better business model combined with this product plus some filling of the dead spaces might actually put more butts in seats than the current grass roots effort is doing.

Thank you for your responses and thoughts - all good ones. IMHO even though drum corps is a nitche activity that presented properly it could appeal to a much broader audience. While the advertising in and around the world championship site is above average I see little of this around major regional sites, why draw the line? It doesn't matter how nitche my product is I am never really going to sell it if I don't advertise, especially in this day and age where so many types of media and so many different events vie for our very short attention spans. Imagine what drum corps might be like if DCI had gone on a long, sustained advertising attack beginning in the 70's. How would Madison Avenue promote this? Sponsors aren't there like they should be now because eyeballs aren't there. PBS was a wonderful outlet for a long time, but DCI did outgrow it. ESPN could have worked, but a one year experiment combined with a frenetic production is not enough for anyone to pass judgement on the value. Isn't the reason to do these broadcasts to gain a wider and more diverse audience while exposing sponsors to potential customers? I know it is a complex issue because you can also add in the minor 'identity' crisis. Is it a sport (Arguably any dance idiom could be argued as a sport too.)? Is it an art-form (And perhaps a little too avante-guard? Pun well intentioned :) )? Can you promote it as everything?

I hardly know where to start. I have been around drum corps for 40 years in roles including that of being 'just' a fan for the past 25 years or so. Some here will no doubt regard me as a dinosaur, I am OK with that. Now I may ramble.... On reaching people: Am I being too simplistic when I say that DCI and DCA do not advertise enough, if at all? Not just to band and music organizations but to the general public? If you have an exciting and fun entertainment product don't you advertise? Not just human interest stories in the newspapers and on the six o'clock news, but commercials, billboards, newspaper and radio? I have lived in several locales where, if I didn't follow the activity, I would have had no idea that these entertainers were in town. The bad habit that many businesses follow is that they do not include enough for real advertising in their budgets and often cut advertising when things get rough rather than focusing on bringing customers through the door like they should. On reaching kids: There has been too much focus on the elite corps and it has hurt the smaller corps' and what folks could consider 'local' corps. I know that this is a generalization but corps needs to be accessible to kids of every skill level. I saw mentioned in another thread about the old days where 'we' taught kids to play by rote - we do not necessarily need to do that but we do need to make sure that kids understand that there is more to corps than placing in the top 12 or being part of the G7 or whatever the heck it is. On shows: I have seen crowds react to all sorts of things all sorts of ways - show designers and judges need to record those things in their log books and mental note boards. Having an entertaining (read: crowd pleasing) show is not mutually exclusive of difficulty and judgability. There seems to be a gulf here that can be crossed. On the show experience for the fan as a whole: Drum corps shows could undoubtedly use some sprucing up to keep the fan and newcomer engaged, although I am not sure what that would look like. Do something between corps' setups, entertain somehow, some more. Maybe I&E folks could show off and make great segs between groups or any number of ideas that the creative on this board and on corps' staffs and in the DCI offices can come up with. Make the evening fun for the whole family! On instrumentation: I really don't want to argue this here as there are already so many other fine threads about this topic. I love the kids and the way they pour their hearts into their performances. I love the creativity and ingenuity of the staffs. I love drum corps!