Fran Haring

Good question about DCI. I know it's allowed in DCA. I've been the voice on some of those pre-recordings. LOL. Heck... if pre-recording helps a corps with its timing, or to enhance a particular theme, whatever... I'm fine with it. Not every voice works for every show. Horses for courses, as the saying goes.

It is cool when it works.... but it can also lead to its own set of issues, with the timing of the announcement. Trust me. LOL. From my radio days, a DJ talking up until the music starts is called "hitting the post." But hitting the post in a stadium environment, where there can be a delay from when the announcer speaks to when it's actually heard over the PA system....well... the post can be run over. That happened at least once for me, at a DCI gig I worked. There was a significant PA delay... one to two seconds lag time. A couple of corps had the "announcement timed with the music" thing... but only one of them factored in the delay. Thus, the announcement stepped on the first note of music for one corps who hadn't taken a delay into consideration. In that case, I plead not guilty. LOL. Not my fault. Nor is it Brandt's fault, or any other announcer's fault. Our job is to talk when cued. If a corps wants to get cute with the timing, and a delay (or a tempo problem) messes that up... that's on them. Honestly, I wish all the announcements were made up front, before a corps starts its show or "pre-judged time" show. Just a better flow, IMO.

I remember that well!!! And you're right, Sam... that wasn't the only time something like that happened, with other corps. Gotta be honest here... I started attending shows in 1967, and don't remember the "is the corps ready" thing from any announcer, until the DCI era. You can check out videos of the World Open from 1970-71, and the PA guy (Wes Hobby in those cases) doesn't do that announcement. Same with the DCA championships, 1960s-early 70s. Heck... when I started working the DCA title show in 1983, I was hesitant to do the "drum major so-and-so, is your corps ready?" thing, because some of the DMs would just ignore it and start their corps. It was something they weren't used to yet.

Me too, when they were available. Prized turf. LOL. I HATED sleeping on a bus... even on the "weekend warrior" bus rides in DCA. Could never quite get comfortable, except on the rare occasions when I had the entire seat to myself. My last few years with my DCA corps, I started driving the corps truck from time to time. Beat the heck out of those bus rides.

Read your post... then went and read that stuff on FB. Wow. Holy mackerel. 10 minutes of my life I can't get back. LOL.

Compared to you, Ken Norman and others, I know next to nothing about music composition/arranging.... but just from listening, Truman Crawford's arrangements for the Royal Airs included things like the lower brass carrying the melody at times... which was definitely not the norm back then.

The days when you could add "ettes" at the end and instantly have an all-girl corps' name!!! 😀

I remember a time when it was cool at some concerts to spit and hit the lead singer.

I'm with the OP regarding the Cavaliers of that era. A great corps. Their early version of "Bully"... circa 1965-66... remains to this day one of my all-time favorite drum corps tunes.

To me, the '65 Royal Airs just seemed to be a well-balanced corps, with Truman Crawford brass arrangements that were cutting-edge for their time... and a show that, again IMO, just seemed to flow better, make more sense, than some other "throw a bunch of tunes at the wall and see what sticks" programs that were not uncommon for that era. I never saw the '65 corps in person... a couple of years before my time... so I'm basing my thoughts just on the recordings I've heard, and from the recollections of friends who did see them.

Yep.... them, too, even though Dustin Johnson just missed an ace on a 4 a couple of years ago. About a foot or so short. Then again, he can hit the ball several miles farther than I can even imagine doing. LOL.

When the Muchachos were still around, there was a woman who would yell something like "Go, go, Muchachos!!!!" just before the corps started, at pretty much every show I saw them. I mean, this woman was LOUD!!!

The folks at the tee on a par-5 who yell that... they should be banned from golf tournaments for life.

I still have a scooter!!! Not sure if it's a Rascal. My now-departed wife needed it after her stroke. I figured I'd hold onto it. I'll be 62 in June, and ya never know. LOL.

Sounds like most people's lives. LOL