From: dci@cs.washington.edu (Donald Chinn)
Subject: Re: Drum corps and the Media
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 92 18:36:35 GMT

In article <Btwqtr.HB3@solbourne.com> halk@solbourne.com (Hal Koshak) writes:
>In article <1992Aug31.190649.15259@husc3.harvard.edu> fath1@husc8.harvard.edu (Michael Fath) writes:
>>One of my long standing gripes about DCI is their failure to generate publicity
>>for the drum corps activity outside of our tiny clique of corps/band 
>>enthusiasts.  I sometimes wonder how many of the current drum corps fans are
>>fans mainly because they marched in corps themselves or had family that marched.
>>I suspect that the number is very high and I take this to mean that drum corps
>>has almost ZERO exposure in the "real world".
>>
>>This year, there will be the PBS broadcast of DCI top 6.  Is there any other
>>exposure of drum corps than this?  In this age of 100 channel cable TV and
>>the information explosion, why can't DCI manage to promote the drum corps
>>activity any better?
>>
>This is a tough one, in that I would like to have more people
>appreciate drum corps, while on the other hand, I don't want to see even
>*more* contention for tickets to big shows.  One could also make the
>argument that a smaller cross section 'in the know' makes for a more
>special and unique activity.

If drum corps becomes widely known and popular, I think what will happen
is that there will a lot more local shows (presumably managed by the
regional associations).  There may even be a few more big regional shows
(although that depends on how long the season can be).

Furthermore, there will probably be more corps.  There was an interesting
column in the latest Drum Corps World (Bob & Terry Fields' What's Happening
Column) in which the opinion of the authors was that it is just too costly
to maintain a successful Open Class corps, which explains the recent decline
in numbers of Open Class corps.  Also, it was explained how difficult it
is to host a show.  Much of the blame was put on the recession.  So where
will the new corps come from?  They will probably be in the Div. II and
Div. III.

Contention will be high for the big contests, but I think that if there
are too many corps, then it might not be logistically impossible to have
a "Finals Week."  It might turn into the situation in college football where
there is no Championship Week.  There might be a few big contests at
the end of the year (maybe two or three at the same time).  Everyone
will have to judge for themselves who "No. 1" is, as some corps may not
even compete against each other.

Back to costs of maintaining a corps.  If there are two or three big
contests at the end and numerous local shows, then travel costs may
actually go down, since a corps can book a thirty show tour without
going traveling more than, say, 5000 miles an entire season.  Who
knows.  The possibilities are endless.

Of course, this is all speculation based on the assumption that drum
corps will be popular and that there will be 500+ corps competing
in 500+ shows.  (Currently, there are about 100 corps and 180 shows.)

-- Donald
Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps