From: matthews@eecs.ucdavis.edu (Thomas W. Matthews)
Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps
Subject: Re: Drum corps and the Media
Date: 2 Sep 92 20:44:32 GMT
Organization: Division of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, UC Davis

IMO, many more people would attend drum corps competitions if they only knew 
what they would see and hear.  Almost everyone that has accepted my invitation
to a competition has later told me that they were surprised and amazed 
(or words to that effect) by what they saw and heard.  

Usually, drum corps do not get the right kind of coverage on 
news broadcasts.  A TV crew might show up at a practice, 
get a number of different pictures at different times with
a correspondingly broken up soundtrack, and then get a picture
of a bus to show while a reporter asks a corps member about
the food they eat while on the road.  I have seen a local news 
broadcast where they did not bother to get any audio of the corps
but dubbed in an old record of march music they found at the station.

I once tried to help the Freelancers get the right type of media exposure.
Our local PBS station, KVIE, at one time had a 5-10 minute program
called "Arts Alive".  Various stories about people and their artistic
endeavors were used to fill time after odd length programs.  Hence,
one particular segment might run once or twice a week for months.

This program, I thought, could lead to just the right kind of
media exposure for the Freelancers and drum corps in general.
  
I started to work on getting KVIE to do the project.  The producer
of the program, although not attracted to the project, was willing
to listen to my idea and eventually scheduled a day at the
Freelancers practice field for the shoot.  It looked like
we would have time to include a couple of minute-long exerpts
from Freelancer's performances (from the finals broadcast, 
pending permission from DCI and others).

Two days before the scheduled shoot, I received a call from the
producer saying that the project had been cancelled.  She said
that her executive producer had overrulled her decision, and
she herself didn't feel strongly enough about the project to
argue in its favor.  

The producer explained the exec's reasoning.  He thought that
drum corps was not an art form.  To support this, he had 
pointed out that it was a competition.  
(I pointed out that KVIE carried the Van Clyburn piano competition.)
She went on to say that only the parents go see these events anyway,
and besides her program was about the PERFORMING arts (emphasis
hers).  I explained that drumcorps was a performing art.  If they 
could do a segment about a little theater group doing obscure
plays for audiences of 20 people, why couldn't they devote some 
time to an activity that involves 128 young people in front of
an audience of 3-4 thousand performing music, dancing, synchronized
movement, etc.  Anyway, the project was not done.

The point I'd like to make is that drum corps deserves and needs
media exposure, but it needs the kind of exposure that acquaints
viewers with their entertainment value and motivates people to
get off their couches and come to a live performance.  
Most media producers have misconceptions that work against
good P.R. for drum corps.  Next year, invite your local news anchor
to a competition!
Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps