Goodbye

[cixelsyd]

On 9/3/2023 at 6:55 PM, MikeD said:

I wonder what he was given to say. A one-liner that got lost in the days events ongoing? Was he given a reasonably constructed announcement of the alumni show and who was in it?

Sounds like he did a lousy job recovering his miss, even if just a one-liner, but I would not put the whole blame on him without knowing more.

Where did I place "the whole blame" on the announcer?

I said the alumni show was getting unprofessional treatment.  I gave the announcement at the end of prelims as one example.  Others here have described more.  To be more thorough, I could have gone on and on about the lack of information on the DCA website, Facebook, Twitter and/or other social media, or the complaints I have heard from Box 5 viewers.  The blame can be spread all around.

But since this is being nit-picked, I still have to say that the announcer should be expected to use a little judgment.  If you are going to mention an upcoming event of the championship weekend, ask for information about it directly from the people who hired you to announce.  If that fails, stick to the facts you know.  Give the lineup... or not... try to avoid guessing at it over a hot mic.

[cixelsyd]

22 hours ago, kevingamin said:

As far as I can tell, there was no announcer's script at all, something that I greatly appreciated having when I announced US Bands and Norwin shows.

Every announcer for a drum corps or marching band event should be provided with a book of script pages (laminated or plastic-sleeved for outdoor shows).  At the barest minimum, it is a legal obligation for the sanctioning entity and/or show host to make periodic announcements about music rights prohibiting spectators from video recording, and whether flash photography is forbidden for performer safety.

[C.Holland]

14 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:

Every announcer for a drum corps or marching band event should be provided with a book of script pages (laminated or plastic-sleeved for outdoor shows).  At the barest minimum, it is a legal obligation for the sanctioning entity and/or show host to make periodic announcements about music rights prohibiting spectators from video recording, and whether flash photography is forbidden for performer safety.

yup.  lots of CYA here, plus consistency of introduction, branding, and keeping MC's from "creative last minute surprise thoughts".  you don't really want a Brockmire moment when you've got both gramma and little bro/sis/x in the stands. 

[Jeff Ream]

3 hours ago, MikeD said:

That is what I was thinking. Before blaming the announcer those things are important to know. 

experienced announces should know...but the alumni show has always been a little loose on organization

[JimF-LowBari]

2 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

experienced announces should know...but the alumni show has always been a little loose on organization

BTW what corps did the alumni show? Only know Hamburg and Hawthorne from FB posts

[Jeff Ream]

3 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said:

BTW what corps did the alumni show? Only know Hamburg and Hawthorne from FB posts

https://dcacorps.org/alumni-corps-shiny-at-sunny-sunday-spectacular

[JimF-LowBari]

8 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

https://dcacorps.org/alumni-corps-shiny-at-sunny-sunday-spectacular

Thanks so 7 corps.

[Jeff Ream]

1 hour ago, JimF-LowBari said:

Thanks so 7 corps.

i had to dig for it.....i wasn't sure. and the number of alumni corps has decreased too

[Fran Haring]

OK...  regarding this whole  "announcer script and so forth" stuff, some background from the guy who did the DCA gig for... well... decades, and apologies for this being long:

For years, I wrote my own script for the DCA regular-season shows, prelims and finals that I worked, simply because no one else was doing it, unlike DCI, which provides those scripts to their announcers. NOT a knock on the DCA staff... remember, they were ALL part-time at their positions. (When I worked DCI shows, it was nice to have that  script work done for me.) 

In 2009, a friend who had worked for DCI was doing PR work for DCA, so he wrote the prelims/finals script for me. And starting in 2011, when DCA pulled me off the prelims show for reasons that have never been fully explained to me (my 2011-2018 DCA years are a story for another day, and I will leave it at that here...LOL), my friend Steve Anderman, who was now the prelims announcer, began writing the scripts for both of us, and did a great job. 

The prelims scripts, regardless of who was writing them, always had drop-in announcements about what else was on the schedule that weekend... the alumni show, finals schedule, etc. 

All the years I worked either DCA or DCI gigs, if I had a question about a pronunciation, etc., I would make sure to ask for help. 

And yes, I plead guilty to making some absolutely boneheaded comments over the microphone through the years... it's a live show, and sometimes stuff happens. It sucks, but it happens. To any announcer. I also appreciated the confidence some folks had in me to... well... "be Fran" when working a show.  LOL. My YEA gigs, my friends there (one in particular) would hand me the script and tell me I had the leeway to use my own style when appropriate. 

I didn't see any DCA shows this year, in person or on Box5, so I have no idea what went on in Rochester, and it ain't my business anymore. I'll just say... announcing drum corps is nowhere near as easy as it might seem to the armchair quarterbacks out there. 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 11, 2023 by Fran Haring

[kevingamin]

On 9/10/2023 at 5:07 PM, Fran Haring said:

OK...  regarding this whole  "announcer script and so forth" stuff, some background from the guy who did the DCA gig for... well... decades, and apologies for this being long:

For years, I wrote my own script for the DCA regular-season shows, prelims and finals that I worked, simply because no one else was doing it, unlike DCI, which provides those scripts to their announcers. NOT a knock on the DCA staff... remember, they were ALL part-time at their positions. (When I worked DCI shows, it was nice to have that  script work done for me.) 

In 2009, a friend who had worked for DCI was doing PR work for DCA, so he wrote the prelims/finals script for me. And starting in 2011, when DCA pulled me off the prelims show for reasons that have never been fully explained to me (my 2011-2018 DCA years are a story for another day, and I will leave it at that here...LOL), my friend Steve Anderman, who was now the prelims announcer, began writing the scripts for both of us, and did a great job. 

The prelims scripts, regardless of who was writing them, always had drop-in announcements about what else was on the schedule that weekend... the alumni show, finals schedule, etc. 

All the years I worked either DCA or DCI gigs, if I had a question about a pronunciation, etc., I would make sure to ask for help. 

And yes, I plead guilty to making some absolutely boneheaded comments over the microphone through the years... it's a live show, and sometimes stuff happens. It sucks, but it happens. To any announcer. I also appreciated the confidence some folks had in me to... well... "be Fran" when working a show.  LOL. My YEA gigs, my friends there (one in particular) would hand me the script and tell me I had the leeway to use my own style when appropriate. 

I didn't see any DCA shows this year, in person or on Box5, so I have no idea what went on in Rochester, and it ain't my business anymore. I'll just say... announcing drum corps is nowhere near as easy as it might seem to the armchair quarterbacks out there. 

 

 

 

 

Let me just say that I am a MUCH better announcer now than when I started at OIPA (sorry, Chad). Having the very detailed scripts I've used for USBands and PIMBA has helped.