Dear Mr. Acheson...

[garfield]

As the kids say, TL,DR.

Please translate for us dinos, please.

[c.l.]

Well, it makes me sound like a royal you-know-what, and that isn't my intent. But only in good fun I say "too long, didn't read".

[garfield]

If you're really being sincere about pursuing a much broader audience for drum corps in this country (especially as it relates to getting more exposure on television), be prepared to see more changes that you might not be all that happy with to the activity you claim to love.

I'm afraid I tend to agree with this, and afraid simply because of the unknown.

But, if done well and successful, I'd rather see a "different" drum corps activity than none at all.

[garfield]

Some possibilities:

- Something along the lines of what we already saw (and many diehard fans complained about) with the ESPN broadcasts. It's the current Olympics model where they show less and less of the actual events and more and more of the human interest stories. Compelling TV when done right, but I'm afraid that's not what the OP and many old school drum corps fans are looking for

- Something along the lines of American Idol or the movie Drumline, perhaps with celebrity judges? Or perhaps drum corps becoming back-up groups to celebrity artists? Take a listen to what passes for popular music these days. Is that what you really want to hear drum corps play more of?

- Shorter shows (or more heavily edited versions of existing shows) so advertisers can air more commercials

- Look at drum corps in its current form. Now ask yourself how relevant the things which make it unique would be to advertisers or a more broad viewing base? Would they care about the traditions? Would they care about the instrumentation (or the "look" of the groups, with uniforms, rifles, etc)? If the activity was asked to CHANGE some of those things in order to expose it to a much wider audience, would you be OK with that? Even if it meant more electronics? Or eliminating the bando uniforms? Or use your imagination.

Think about what a TV focus group of 40 or 50 average Americans who don't know a thing about drum corps would say about the activity when shown, for example, the 2012 DCI Finals and asked what changes would they like to see if they were to watch this on prime time national TV?

Think about that and ask yourself, is this really what we want?

As well, I think it's safe to say that whatever "new" drum corps funding mechanism is developed, it's going to be a "pay-to-play" model where only those with the resources (read: money) can buy in to the promotion and reap its rewards.

Most likely it will be a for-profit arm that produces marketing for those corps who are able to participate.

[bawker]

This can be accomplished via alternate media outlets: go look at the "channel list" on Roku or some of the other streaming boxes: every church, organization or niche is represented there.

An easy, easy place to start: a DCI (or marching arts in general) channel on Roku . . .constant rotation of older DCI, DCA, BOA and WGI Finals performances, peppered with "live" reports during the competitive season(s) with a video version of Field Pass. Charge a flat $4.99 fee for it and away we go.

Start small, get some subscribers, and see what happens.

[Stu]

Now, corporate sponsorship of individual corps? That's a heckuva lot more likely.

This 'corporate sponsorship' idea has already been tried and failed. Want proof? Ask the CEO of Circle-K if sponsoring Suncoast Sound Drum & Bugle Corps worked for either the corps or the company; ask the CEO of Knights Inn if that company was able to survive by sponsoring The Knights Drum & Bugle Corps. The answer is absolutely NO! However, what might possibly work is if the parent 501c3 of a corps owns their own for-profit business, say a fast-food franchise, and then funnels any profit from that business into the corps. Star did this with owning an aircraft fueling depot at an airport.

[perc2100]

If you're sincere, get to the friggin point in your letter!

Also, the OP can pledge to donate 10's of thousands of dollars it costs to pay to broadcast DCI on television

[perc2100]

Having said that, and as a film producer with numerous projects in various stages of development, I would submit that if DCI were to market itself as savvily as all of us in "the industry" are compelled to (if we want to raise the ridiculous amounts of money we need to get our projects made, that is), I'm quite certain it wouldn't have any significant problems finding enough advertisers to justify pitching it to a network. It can be done. It has been done. Heck, I've done it, and with far less saleable a product than the Madison Scouts.

In conclusion, Bill Cook. Were it not for a DCI telecast, none of us would still be arguing about Star of Indiana 20 years after they packed up their act and took it to Broadway.

Call me, Dan. Let's do lunch.

This is ALL about money: how much money it costs DCI to produce anything vs how much return DCI can realistically expect to get in return. It is unfathomable for DCI to drop tens of thousands of dollars on an ESPN2 broadcast, where they had to format their product for ESPN (i.e. not deliver it the way its product is customarily delivered) while DCI has the Fan Network: a media delivery method of their product where DCI can put whatever they want w/out having to reformat anything for anyone (unless they want to), and people PAY for this method.

Seems like good business sense - don't pay tens of thousands of dollars to give people your product for free vs make some money delivering product to fans who are PAYING to see your product.

I guess if you're a film producer with numerous credits perhaps you might be in the position to front DCI the money? Or donate the cost of production? Or help them get sponsors so DCI could buy the broadcast space? Sounds like you might have an idea to pitch Dan, while DCI is currently content with where they are at as far as delivering their product via media (i.e. maybe instead of insisting Dan calls you, you can drop him a line).

Or are you not really THAT sincere enough in your desire to see DCI on TV that you want to put in the leg work/front the money; are you just kinda grandstanding on DCP without really doing any legit effort to get this chance, being someone in the industry who knows the history of DCI on TV?

[perc2100]

Some possibilities:

- Something along the lines of what we already saw (and many diehard fans complained about) with the ESPN broadcasts. It's the current Olympics model where they show less and less of the actual events and more and more of the human interest stories. Compelling TV when done right, but I'm afraid that's not what the OP and many old school drum corps fans are looking for

- Something along the lines of American Idol or the movie Drumline, perhaps with celebrity judges? Or perhaps drum corps becoming back-up groups to celebrity artists? Take a listen to what passes for popular music these days. Is that what you really want to hear drum corps play more of?

- Shorter shows (or more heavily edited versions of existing shows) so advertisers can air more commercials

- Look at drum corps in its current form. Now ask yourself how relevant the things which make it unique would be to advertisers or a more broad viewing base? Would they care about the traditions? Would they care about the instrumentation (or the "look" of the groups, with uniforms, rifles, etc)? If the activity was asked to CHANGE some of those things in order to expose it to a much wider audience, would you be OK with that? Even if it meant more electronics? Or eliminating the bando uniforms? Or use your imagination.

Think about what a TV focus group of 40 or 50 average Americans who don't know a thing about drum corps would say about the activity when shown, for example, the 2012 DCI Finals and asked what changes would they like to see if they were to watch this on prime time national TV?

Think about that and ask yourself, is this really what we want?

I think we all want what's best for DCI, and right now it's not best for DCI to pay tens of thousands of dollars to broadcast anything: regardless of what format (chopped up, full-on live, etc). Besides DCI Finals (which is a WHOLE other argument I've made plenty of times around here), there are ways fans who want to see DCI shows w/out going to their local stadiums can do so that were unavailable even a decade ago. One of these methods is Fan Network, a medium where DCI can actually make money from people watching shows.

Now, I know the argument from the OP seems to revolve around "put DCI on tv so by sheer blind luck we can attract more people to the activity, hopefully a billionaire or something" but there are maybe other ways to achieve bringing DCI to people's attention minus DCI spending tens of thousands of dollars.

[perc2100]

This can be accomplished via alternate media outlets: go look at the "channel list" on Roku or some of the other streaming boxes: every church, organization or niche is represented there.

An easy, easy place to start: a DCI (or marching arts in general) channel on Roku . . .constant rotation of older DCI, DCA, BOA and WGI Finals performances, peppered with "live" reports during the competitive season(s) with a video version of Field Pass. Charge a flat $4.99 fee for it and away we go.

Start small, get some subscribers, and see what happens.

Or, you know, DCI can utilize Fan Network, which they already have as a way to get subscribers. Do they have adds and stuff on youtube, or other stuff blasting their product to the masses? I know individual corps do that kind of stuff, but I can't recall really seeing much advertising for actual Fan Network