DanjrusMcRynky Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 I miss the days of the full finals broadcast on PBS... Yeah, plus it was a good thing for people who didn't know about DCI to stumble across while channel surfing, since everyone and their mothers (literally) have PBS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyushujet Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 Some of you guys were actually at the 1980 Finals in Birmingham? A VHS copy of that show at my high school is what got it all started for me back in 83. One of my all time favorite years. I envy you guys that experience. Anyway, back on topic. PBS broadcasts were the best for showing what DCI was about to the uninitiated. And when my local PBS station would show DCI Finals, it usually was during their fund raising week. I would always break open the check book and send money. One year I got the 2000 2-disc CD of the shows from San Antonio and Indy for my pledge. ESPN2 was ok, but I found the broadcasts to be more behind the scenes than actually footage of the corps' shows. I do remember the first year DCI was on ESPN2, I was down in Lima, Peru walking into an electronics store that had a big section of TVs. And lo and behold, on every screen was ESPN2 with the DCI Finals. I looked around the store to see if anyone else was watching and taking it all in. Alas, I was the only one that seemed interested, but still a cool moment for me. But I knew that DCI was trying to get away from showing the Finals for free on TV by the way they were programming Finals. It made you have to buy the DVDs if you really wanted to see the full shows of each corps. PPV might be the way to go, but my guess is its already been investigated by DCI and their take of the profits was probably too low. And the last time I went to a theater to watch Finals here in Dallas, I got a rip-roaring headache because the focus seemed a tad bit off. Hopefully it's been improved on since then, but I won't risk another long night sitting in a theater with a slightly blurry picture. So it seems with this latest slap in the face to the drum corps fan by not showing ANY broadcast of Finals this year on TV, the bean counters at DCI may have just shot themselves in the foot. Keep ostracizing the common drum corps fan, and you'll start seeing us staying away in droves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolf1 Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 HA! Those PBS broadcasts got me interested back in 75................... Philly............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Brace Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 Me too! I loved the live, entire show broadcasts. Great evening of entertainment. evidently not so great for PBS and their fundraising drives though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbell211 Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 I liked it better when DCI was on PBS. You got to see the entire performances of the Top 12. On ESPN2, the broadcast was too short for what it was. You could imagine how much DCI had to pay for airtime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84BDsop Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 I liked it better when DCI was on PBS. You got to see the entire performances of the Top 12. On ESPN2, the broadcast was too short for what it was. You could imagine how much DCI had to pay for airtime. They'd stopped the full top 12 by 83....the only complete shows then were BD and Garfield...and for the longest time afterwards the onlhy complete show was teh winner...and even THAT stopped near the end....I can't remember the last time ANY complete show was broadcast anywhere outside of theater shows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntheMood Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 If corps fans who made pledges during the broadcast had followed through on paying those pledges, we might still have PBS.... I hear this all the time. Is there something out there that we can see from PBS to prove this statement. I know for a fact that there was a time that Mr. Cook funded the PBS broadcast with his own money. And when Star left, as they say, the rest is history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 (edited) If corps fans who made pledges during the broadcast had followed through on paying those pledges, we might still have PBS.... Must have been different from place to place. In central PA (Hershey, PA) the people did follow thru on the pledges. Problem was less and less people were making pledges as the years went on. Hershey station started with 1975 DCI and for the rest of the 70s it was their biggest fund raiser of the year. (Irony is Central PA was heavy in Senior corps at the time.) Then as general interst in corps went down the amount taken in went down so the station found more productive things to show to raise money. Currently they're showing Doo-Wop groups so appears the older generation is the one really supporting PBS in my area. All info taken from friend who worked at the station in the 1980s. Edited June 27, 2008 by JimF-3rdBari Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OrlandoContraAlum Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 They'd stopped the full top 12 by 83....the only complete shows then were BD and Garfield...and for the longest time afterwards the onlhy complete show was teh winner...and even THAT stopped near the end....I can't remember the last time ANY complete show was broadcast anywhere outside of theater shows. I don't know Sam... I know that before ESPN they went to the Live top 5 (6?) broadcast b/c I distinctly remember watching it on 8/11/01. I remember b/c we had a friend over that I was introducing to Drum Corps. After the show, we were discussing how our generation didn't have that signature moment, like Armstrong on the moon or the Kennedy assassination. If we only knew what was coming exactly one month later. So yeah, I am positive that they did a full show live broadcast in 2001. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted June 27, 2008 Share Posted June 27, 2008 Must have been different from place to place. In central PA (Hershey, PA) the people did follow thru on the pledges. Problem was less and less people were making pledges as the years went on. Hershey station started with 1975 DCI and for the rest of the 70s it was their biggest fund raiser of the year. (Irony is Central PA was heavy in Senior corps at the time.) Then as general interst in corps went down the amount taken in went down so the station found more productive things to show to raise money. Currently they're showing Doo-Wop groups so appears the older generation is the one really supporting PBS in my area.All info taken from friend who worked at the station in the 1980s. The lack of followthrough by DCI pledgers has been posted by lots of people over time...some of them had called their affiliates and were told that information. To show the DCI live event was up to the inndividual affiliate, so it became a patchwork sort of thing as stations dropped out. Eventually the show ended up being taped and broadcast after the pledge week so as not to interfere with the real money-making events. Some just dropped it totally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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