I must say that the golf channel is one of the most useless channels on a satelite. You're right drummergrl, they need a DCI channel for real.

I'll have to disagree.... a golf channel is not totally useless. When you get hella bored
(and i mean bored beyond bored) you can scream random things at the tv.But a DCI channel would be the best thing since sliced bread.

I think we have enough golf channels and golf on tv...hey, at least marching band/drum corps keeps everything moving! I wonder how long something like that could last though, but I guess that the professionals can learn drills super fast enough for a DCI channel to be an ongoing thing.

I could see it now...they'd have one of those anylisis shows for the drumlines, have like one of those reality shows that follows a high school band through a whole season. It'll be off the hook.

That would be sooooooooooooo cooooool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

Dude! A DCI channel would be tight. They could broadcast every performance so you don't have to buy a ticket to see, but you still get to see some of it. They could show practice sessions of the band and the drumline. They could have a show called "Parking Lot Sessions" and they could show different clips from each band getting ready for a competition. Dude, you could even show a corps learning drill and music. And I could definetly see a reality TV show like that. But it'd be funny to have a reality Drumline show like Fear Factor or something. I don't know how that would work, like, a dare would have to be to play Trad grip on Tenors with 7A sticks or something. Lol, that would be funny. <img border="0" alt="[2]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm2.gif" />

Tenors playing with 7A sticks? and in traddish? That would give me a chuckle.
<img border="0" alt="[2]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm2.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[2]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm2.gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[2]" title="" src="graemlins/cwm2.gif" />

What I would like to see is for camera crews to follow different corps around on summer tour. They could show practices, off days, breaks, shows, just the typical "day in the life" of a corps member. Sort of like they do in the tour diaries, only have the show run daily for like an hour all summer and profile all the top corps from Div 1, 2 and 3 and DCA. Not only would it be awesome to see how everything was progressing with the different corps, but it might get new people to join after they see how much fun it is.

I really like the idea of the reality show proposal. I think, however that MTV or VH1 would be a better channel for that than ESPN. It could be positioned as part of the Save-The-Music campaign that they have been running the past few years. It could be shot along the same lines as Real World (a show I despise, btw.)

I do believe that ESPN should be the location to air championships, however. They air cheerleading and dance team championships, so I couldn't see why they wouldn't be able to do drum corps, marching band, and color guard championships. Don't get me wrong, PBS has done a fine job over the years, but they just can't seem to keep the expenses down.

It will all come down to sponsorships to get this done. Unless we can get a Cook Group, Inc. type sponsorship, we would need the equipment manufacturers (Yamaha, Pearl, Dynasty, Zildjian, Sabian, etc.) as well as some services (Sysco Food Services) or sports companies (Gatorade, Nike, et al.) to fund it. Maybe MTV could be pursuaded to throw some funds at it, too, again as part of Save-The-Music foundation.

Any other ideas?

A lot of times ESPN shows more coverage than regular networks, so maybe we could get to see more than just the top 5 corps at finals. I would love to see at least the top 12, and maybe some of the top Div 2 and 3 corps as well.

I wonder if they could also be cajoled into showing BOA Grand Nationals...