Economy Puts DCI In A Bind, Kills Annual TV Broadcast Of National Championship

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Category: Tales From The Podium

It appears that the broader economic downturn has already driven the national DCI organization to make some drastic changes including killing the annual 2008 championship broadcast on ESPN. 

{mosimage}There are few student performing organizations that I can think of that travel more each year than the members of Drum Corps International. The summer performance schedule takes corps across the United States and back again over the brief summer break from school. The very thought of the sky high energy costs associated with moving bus loads of people and equipment each cross country is enough to make a person fear for the financial stability of member corps, but these local corps are not the only ones affected by the crunch. It appears that the broader economic downturn has already driven the national DCI organization to make some drastic changes, including killing the annual 2008 championship broadcast on ESPN.

A Decision That May Come Back To Haunt DCI

In a statement last November, Dan Acheson, Executive Director and CEO of Drum Corps International stated:

“We know our fans will be disappointed with this announcement and are likely to feel as badly as we do. We also anticipate that some fans will want to know if we can shift back to PBS in light of this decision, but that is not possible at this time. We hope that our loyal fans will continue to support Drum Corps International and its corps by attending and enjoying our live events, and by taking advantage of our audio and video productions, our cinema events and our ever expanding Web-based media.”

In truth, even though this was obviously a very hard decision for DCI I honestly feel that it was the wrong one. In this era of the Internet a company must be willing to give something away for free in order to build and maintain a valid community of fans. By removing the ESPN broadcast DCI removed the last of these free outlets. The amount of publicity and interest that the championship broadcast provided each year helped to drive hundreds of students down the path of becoming a corps member. The broadcast served to help schools with drumming up support for their marching band programs, and in general helped to boost the overall status of music as a vocation. Where else could you see music being treated with the same level of respect and gravitas as a national sporting event? While I honestly hated the move to ESPN and the new, shorter format I must admit that it did have a positive effect. Now, with the loss of this broadcast, one can only wonder if its absence will serve to make a bad situation for DCI even worse.

Comments  

 

0 #1 Jim Mahoney 2008-08-10 08:30

Was wondering if in light the cancellation of the televised show you are going to cancel the cinema show also. If not how can I get info as to where and when they will be up and running. Thanx

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