ADDRESS:

History of the DCI World Championship on PBS

Dr. William Cook and Mr. Tom Blair


Prologue.

This article contains two Chapters.  Chapter 1 is authored by Bill Cook who gives some
comments regarding DCI's relationship with PBS, the attempt to market drum corps, and what
the future may hold for this activity.  Tom Blair discusses his experience with the production of
the DCI Championship telecast in Chapter 2.  


Chapter 1: Television And Drum Corps
Dr. William Cook


Back in the good old days of 1967 television, some bright individual thought that our country
needed public television to spiritually enhance our lives.  Obviously this person was not only a
dreamer but also one hell-of-a-salesman.  This person convinced the President of the United
States that public television was necessary to counter whatever Dan Rather was trying to say on
commercial TV.  No doubt this creator of PBS wore sandals, smoked pot, and loved Woodstock. 
PBS was born to accept anything that didn't have commercial value, was off-the-wall, or might
appeal to children -- gosh, what channel is Sesame Street on?  University types got free-air time
to expound the virtues of free love, free education, free lunches, free medical care, free funerals,
and free tickets to the Manson trial.   In the beginning, all of this neat stuff came from taxpayers'
good hearts.

In spite of itself and in spite of too many Bostonians stuffing the airwaves with arty nonsense,
PBS grew into a giant of loosely bound stations located on nation's university campuses.  In the
early 1980s, PBS's government handout began decreasing; today it receives only 18% from our
50-year old President, former hippy and accused philanderer.  The rest of the stations' income
comes from our donations, large and small.   

In spite of all of PBS's shortcomings, it has become the premier network for the arts and
education.  PBS was the first network to broadcast in stereo and one of the first networks to use
satellite transmission.  Their electronic equipment and television techniques are still far ahead of
the commercial networks including CNN, and ESPN.  In addition, they cover North America
better than their commercial counterparts. They were and are a force that commercial TV
attempts to copy but can't.  Yes, it bothers commercial broadcasters that PBS has such a loyal
following.   Whenever commercial television attempts to emulate PBS, they fail.  Why, because
they can not wrest PBS's audience away.


DCI's Long Association With PBS.

Looking at the way that PBS and DCI survive and are operated, they could be twins. Like PBS,
DCI has a limited but distinctive audience and their respective fund raising endeavors determine
whether or not the organizations will make it out another year.   Apparently, PBS and DCI were
made for each other; both were in the business of marketing artistic ventures as opposed to
athletics events or other commercial TV programs.

When DCI and PBS were still young, they found each other.  In 1974, a small PBS station in
Ithaca, NY produced a 1 hour version of the DCI championships, showing only the prelim
performances of the Anaheim Kingsmen, Madison Scouts and Santa Clara Vanguard.  From
1975 through 1978, WGBH in Boston produced the show and actually broadcast live all four
hours of those championships in Philadelphia and Denver.  1979 - 1981 was produced by WHA
in Madison.  In fact, even before taking over the championship telecast, WHA and producer Art
Luebke (FMM Madison Scouts) were huge supporters of DCI throughout the 70's, producing
shows revolving around the Midwest Championship in Whitewater from 1974 to 1978.  Luebke's
programs were some of the best.  The 1981 PBS telecast was only of Midwest, since Finals
moved north to Canada that year.  The complications of organizing production across the border
prevented a telecast of Finals that year. 1982, with the championships still in Montreal, saw a
Canadian production complete with commentary over the corps' performances.  In 1983, WTVP
from Peoria, IL took over the production and produced the shows from '83 through '86.  By this
time, the stations along the PBS network were beginning to lose interest in the project, probably
due to the lack of consistency and marketing effort put forth by the ever-changing list of
producers.  1982 saw the first scaled-down highlights-only program and the WTVP era was the
beginning of the limited top-5 live finals coverage.  But in 1987, WTIU of Bloomington Indiana
took over both production and marketing responsibilities.  Success followed and by 1991, over
400 PBS stations aired DCI's championship.

Lately, however, to DCI, the championship telecast has been an "after thought" because one of
DCI's profitable operations has been sale of audio and video recordings.  The telecast has
become a byproduct of tape and disk recording production.  


Who Made the Championship Telecast a Gold Standard?

Since the 1979 DCI championship telecast, Steve Rondinaro, a professional newscaster and
former drum corps member from Watkins Glen, New York, has hosted and anchored all of the
championship telecasts.  He accepted this challenge and is still a stalwart of the broadcast today. 
Chicago's Larry Rock, radio broadcaster, audio expert, and Grammy winner had been DCI's
professional audio volunteer for many years.  He is the person responsible for the excellent audio
recordings that DCI sells and retains in their library.  Tom Blair, professional television
producer, director, and editor, worked with the Peoria team during the early years, and in 1987
took over the telecast's management responsibilities.  Tom produced and directed the quality
broadcasts during the late 80s and 90s.  His talent and work elevated the program to a standard
that few outdoor broadcasts will be able to duplicate in the future. Tom will discuss his
involvement with the telecast in Chapter 2 of this article.

WTIU's Keith Klein and Susie Owens worked countless hours and lent their expertise in
producing and promoting the championship telecast. Keith directed the technical crews and
helped manage the television production while Susie relentlessly pestered the network's affiliates
for airtime.  

Without this unheralded group of individuals, DCI championship could not have reached what
professional telecasters consider being a gold standard for outdoor telecasting.

From 1987 through 1992, Cook Group was the major financial sponsor and I served as executive
producer. 


Confusion!  Drum Corps: What Is It?

The failure of the championship ever reaching a larger viewer market stems, in part, from not
being able to define what drum corps is.  For this reason marketing is difficult.  A commercial
telecast usually has a targeted audience.  But drum corps is so unusual that even its supporters,
participants, and fans can not agree who should watch it other than themselves.  The drum corps
activity is usually defined in individual terms and reasons mostly anecdotal.  Is drum corps an
athletic event, entertainment, competition, youth activity or musical education?  For each person
asked, there will be a different answer.  Drum corps may not be anything more than a state of
mind or an emotional experience for anyone who follows or participates in it.  To professional
marketers, it is a nebulous concept and defies definition.  

As followers of drum corps, we tend to forget that not everyone wants the experience nor do they
have an interest in any form of art, music, or physical activity.   Drum corps is and always will
have limited recording and television appeal.  For certain, it's a product that belongs on PBS.

If we as participants can't agree on what is drum corps, how can professionals market it?  In my
opinion the answer to this question is... we can't!


Television Has A Price.

Sure, DCI can go commercial but at what price?  In order for DCI to prepare the championship
program for distribution on a major commercial network, the organization would first have to
pay for the television production costs $250,000 or more.  In addition, it would have to buy
network time, at $15,000 to $1,000,000, depending upon the network and the scheduled airtime. 
Well, why doesn't DCI go out and find sponsors?  Believe me, many people have tried to interest
literally hundreds of potential sponsors with only a few takers such as Cook Group, McDonalds,
Disney, and IBM.  If a network or superstation aired the championship, DCI would still have to
pay for and promote the telecast but again, to whom?  

O.K. why not make drum corps a sport and put it on ESPN?  Even though we tried to do this
several years ago, it was a bum idea.  Drum corps is not considered to be a sport to outsiders.
And besides, ESPN does not have a fraction of the potential audience that PBS has.  What about
the Arts and Entertainment network?  Again, A&E has a low viewing audience when compared
to PBS.


Conclusion.

Today, drum corps has to compete with every type of entertainment including television, sports,
outdoor recreation, gambling, symphonies, opera, and ballet.  In the past and in the future, drum
corps will to have a small but loyal audience.  The audience size probably will not increase.
There is a limit to how much anyone will spend for entertainment.  Even if the entertainment is
free on TV, the audience has to know and understand what they are watching.  Let's all of us quit
worrying about drum corps demise and how it can be marketed on TV.   Why not enjoy the
activity for what it is and what a participant thinks it is.  As for me, I'm going to enjoy whatever
it is and whenever I can. 
     

Chapter 2: The Production Of The DCI Championship Telecast
Mr. Tom Blair


My Association With DCI.

I started working on the broadcast in 1985. Back in 1980, while still marching in the Cavaliers, I
worked at the DCI office and developed a relationship with Don and Mary Pesceone. In 1983, a
year after finishing college at the University of Michigan, I moved to Illinois, and went to work
for Larry McCormick, directing the TV coverage of the Bands of America Championships. I also
taught the Cavaliers percussion section, so I was fairly involved in DCI activities. By 1985, Don
was becoming disenchanted with the lack of growth in the telecast and we agreed that I would
do some editing on the completed recordings in 1985, and perhaps take a more active role in
1986.


The Early Telecasts.

In 1986, I worked with then-producer/director Steve Norman (from WTVP in Peoria) to try and
give more accurate coverage of the corps. As a television producer having a drum corps
background as a member, arranger, instructor and judge, I brought more "inside" insight to the
production than Steve Norman ever could. Steve was a fine director and sincerely dedicated to
the project, but he had no drum corps or music background on which to base his shots.  Steve
produced and directed the program from 1983 to 1986 and his effort and commitment to DCI
was never lost on Don Pesceone. He could never quite ask Steve to step aside and let me take
over. In 1987, Bill Cook provided that opportunity.


DCI Association With Cook Group.

In 1987, DCI was simply out of money for the telecast. The sale of videotapes had not yet grown
to the point where it could support the cost of production and those costs were continuing to rise.
DCI had some sponsorship for the national PBS telecast, but the money from McDonalds,
Tombstone Pizza, Federal Express and others did not cover the costs. It looked like there might
be no telecast from Madison in 1987. 


Enter Bill Cook.

As a corporate sponsor, Cook Group Incorporated had already been supporting DCI on several
levels. But in 1987, Pesceone agreed to give Cook control of the TV production, since Cook had
offered to take it and to pay for it. But the word "control" is misleading. In reality, DCI never -
ever - lost "control" of the broadcast during the Cook years. This was for a couple of reasons:
One, Bill Cook does not micro-manage his operations. He places good people in key positions
and lets them do their job. Bill tends to place so much trust in his people that they become
driven to work "beyond the call." (See also: "enough rope to hang yourself') Two, Pesceone
seized the opportunity to place me in the director's chair. I worked closely with Pesceone and
DCI throughout my tenure on the broadcast to ensure that it was DCI's showpiece, enhancing the
image of drum corps throughout the world.  From 1987 through 1993, Cook provided DCI with
money or services worth well over a million dollars.


Hierarchy of TV Production.

I was originally hired as the "director" of the telecast. Let's try to define some terms. A
"producer" is generally the man behind the overall creation of the program. The producer comes
up with a concept for a show and maps it out, much like a composer might create a piece of
music (minus the commercials, of course). The producer then hires the director as the principle
person who will transform the producer's idea into reality. The producer generally maintains
day-to-day control of the program's budget and manages a dizzying list of details. Details that
include everything from promoting the show on the PBS network to having coffee available for
the crew working in the truck overnight. The producer is responsible for all the details, top to
bottom.

Often a program will credit an "executive producer." That person is generally in charge of the
producer(s) and has final say over how money is spent. Normally, the executive producer has
extensive involvement in the actual design and production of a program, but sometimes not. 

Occasionally, the executive producer may serve only to control the budget. This was more the
case during the Cook-DCI telecast years. Bill was listed as the executive producer, but was not
constantly looking over our shoulders. Informed, yes. Aware of all aspects of the production,
yes. But rarely did he override the production team's wishes. Perhaps I am spending too much
time on this point, but as a producer, I have seen my share of overly manipulative executive
producers, and Cook was not one of them.

A television director (typically) is the person responsible for taking the producer's vision of the
program and making it a reality. The director is the one who must bridge the gap between the
creativity of the ideal program and the reality of the event or the crew or the equipment. The
director's creativity comes into play in making that happen.


DCI's Association With WTIU Of Bloomington, Indiana.

For the first six years I worked on the show as the director, Keith Klein of  was listed as the
producer. Our producer/director relationship was a little different, since I was the one who had
all the drum corps background. In essence, I took charge of the design, content and flow of the
show while Keith took care of all the logistics involved in getting the show shot and on the
network. Keith Klein and WTIU became synonymous with drum corps to the PBS stations across
the U.S. He and his staff placed this show into more markets and on more stations during the late
80's and early 90's than at any other time in the history of the program.


Success Of The DCI World Championship.

By 1992, DCI was carried, live or highlights, on nearly every PBS station in the country as well
as the Armed Forces network. We were in all 50 of the top 50 television markets. That's 100% of
the top markets. That was due to Keith's and Susie Owens persistence at selling the show and our
ability not only to consistently deliver what we promised - a high quality program - but also to
improve it every year.


Equipment For The Telecast.

I organized and directed the show from 1987 through 1994.  During that time, I drew upon my
industry contacts and friends to get some of the best people and equipment in the business
involved with DCI. In 1987, we used the same remote production truck that Steve Norman had
used the year before. In 1988 we moved up to a company called Unitel which provides the
facilities for such broadcasts as Live at Lincoln Center and other very high-profile, high-quality
events. But in 1989, I struck a deal with my friends at NBC. They owned the best mobile
production facilities in the country at the time and used them exclusively for their own
broadcasts. But they were intrigued with my idea of renting their trucks to outside clients. DCI
became the catalyst for a whole new business at NBC and we were the second outside client ever
to use an NBC truck. (Our discussions started in 1987, and unfortunately some car race beat us
to be their first outside client). We used NBC facilities until I stopped producing the show after
1994. And, with the preferential rates that NBC charged me for our little "experiment," DCI
benefitted from some of the best equipment in the business for less than what other companies
would have charged for dramatically lesser equipment.

A similar situation existed in the editing process. In 1987, I had recently helped a film post
production (editing/finishing) house in Chicago, Avenue Edit, get on its feet in television
postproduction.  I approached the owner in the fall with my little pet project and he generously
agreed to let me use his facility at a fraction of the normal cost. Which, by the way, is not to say
that any of this was cheap, it was not. But with both the NBC and Avenue Edit deals, DCI
received many thousands of dollars worth of extra services, which it could have never otherwise
afforded. That's part of the reason why the show looked and sounded so great.


Quality Creates Success.

The other reason for the quality of the shows during that era was the quality of the people who
worked on it. Because I work in television, and have been fortunate enough to work my way to
the network level, I have met and worked with some of the most talented people in the industry.
And, in most cases, my first thoughts about those people were, "I wonder what they're doing the
third week in August?" Many of them took a real interest in the project and worked on the show
year after year. To their credit, most worked for a lesser rate than normal.


Managing Growth.

The show's production operation grew fairly dramatically over the 10 years I was involved. I
think my first year (1985) was shot with 5 cameras and a crew of 15. By 1993 - my personal
favorite television year - we were covering the show with 10 cameras and a crew of about 40.
The budget in 1985 was somewhere in the neighborhood of $65,000. In 1994, including the
pay-per-view project, the production cost more than $230,000. We had 10 cameras, 11 VTRs,
on-site editing, satellite uplinks, surround sound, wireless cameras and on-site duplication. You
could walk away with a copy of the program or your favorite corps the night of championships.


It's Not A Football Game Folks!

The process of directing a drum corps TV show was fairly daunting, mostly because of my love
for the activity and my obsession with trying to capture this phenomenon on tape. Frankly, years
later, I will tell you that it can't be done.  At least, not really.  You can come close, but it is just
too big and too powerful an experience to squeeze into that little box. But the approach I took
was to try to express what the corps themselves were trying to express. I felt that if I could
understand what the corps were trying to do with their presentation, perhaps I could find ways
for the television medium to enhance their efforts. This required some homework. I laid out a
schedule of all the corps shows for the summer and figured out what regionals and local shows I
could attend that would give me at least five viewings of the major players. Starting in mid-July,
I would begin to travel to research programs and learn shows. The work on the features (in the
later years) started earlier. In 1993, I met with my key staff in February to plan features and
feature shoots.


Preparation, Preparation, Preparation.

At each of the regional competitions I attended, I would typically try to watch prelims with a
member of the corps' design staff. He or she would guide me through their program and give me
specific direction regarding their program's focus. I would record these comments on an audio
cassette Then, during the finals of that regional, I would make my own cassette, remembering
what I had been told about the show earlier, but watching and reacting on my own. On the tape I
would record my voice notes with the corps music in the background. My notes would be
something like, "Baritone entrance, right 45, hash mark, camera 2." Or, "Drill, camera 1, wide." I
would repeat this process as many times as possible with each corps. It was kind of like doing
the ultimate, crossover GE tape.

Then, typically early during the week of DCI championships, I personally would transcribe the
audio tapes to paper. This accomplished two goals: one, to get the notes on paper so that my
assistant director could help keep me on track directing cameras, and two, help me to further
visualize and internalize the corps shows. Then I would take the written notes and listen to the
audiocassette corps' staff member and make sure I was still in-sync with them. During the week
of championships, we would rehearse by shooting Thursday's quarterfinals and Friday's
semifinals, adjusting shots and audio. By the time Saturday night rolled around, it was rare that I
would even look at the notes since most all of it was memorized. Audio would also get a copy of
my notes so that they could be prepared for soloists and other localized music events.


Big Shows Need Lots of Cameras.

Cameras were placed as follows:

Camera 1  High & wide for constant full-field coverage
Camera 2  Mid-level left for group and ensemble coverage
Camera 3  Mid-level right mirror for camera 2
Camera 4  Field level left handheld
Camera 5  Field level right handheld
Camera 6  High right for more dramatic depth of wide coverage
Camera 7  End zone in line with front sideline. Also used for talent on-camera
Camera 8  RF or wireless camera for backstage and total freedom to roam for shots
Camera 9  Reverse angle low center
Camera 10 Reverse angle high left to show that there actually are people at the event


Gotta Know What You're Looking At.

Each cameraman was given a 15-page book detailing the event and the best shot framing for a
given instrument. For example, a snare line is better shot slightly off-axis. The symmetrical
movement of either the left or right hands moving together is more impressive and visible.
Rifles: straight-on and low, to exaggerate sense of height on a toss, and so on.  I provided each
cameraman with both a percussion catalogue and a bugle catalogue (donated by the
manufacturers) and required them to know the difference between a soprano and a mellophone,
a xylophone and a marimba. Remember that these guys were just cameramen, not drum corps
fans, and each year a new crew had to learn what they had to shoot.


Audio Isn't As Easy As It Sounds.

From an audio standpoint, this show is tough. Again, it's impossible to capture the sound
pressure you feel standing in front of the Blue Devils' horn line when they're blowing their brains
out. Enter Larry Rock and Peter Saltans. We divided the sound recording duties between these
two people. Peter Saltans managed the television mix, with all of its added complications of tape
machines and talent mics and truck communications, while Larry Rock handled the micing and
recording of the corps on the field. He then fed Peter a stereo submix.

The actual mic technique used was developed over several years. We found that, because of the
large soundstage and the spread of the performers, the fewer the mics the better. The more mics
scattered around the field, the greater the exposure to phase cancellation. Basically, we used a
stereo mic in the center, and a combination of mics placed on about the 35 yard lines. This was
the setup for the CD recordings, which Larry Rock recorded on digital tape. He then fed his mix
to the TV truck and we added the announcers.  I always enjoyed hearing the complaint, "Why
can't the TV audio be as good as the CDs?" In fact, they were exactly the same.

Surround sound was added to the mix in 1990. This enabled us to give the viewer a better sense
being in the stadium. Broadcast surround technology was in its infancy, so Larry, Peter and I met
with the designers of the surround encoder in the spring of that year and worked out the best
method of encoding the audio. We were way ahead of the curve on broadcast surround.


Larry Rock, The Master Of The Audio Board.

I should mention that Larry Rock is another product of drum corps. He worked for many years as
a recording engineer for WFMT-FM in Chicago. WFMT is known for having one of the finest
on-air products in broadcasting. He has recorded several of the country's finest orchestras and
has won many awards, including a Grammy for best recorded classical album. He marched in the
Des Plaines Vanguard. He and former brass judge Jim Unrath improved the audio recordings
dramatically.


The Digital DCI World Championship.

By 1994, the program was recorded entirely digitally, both audio and video. Remember too, that
the program was also fed out live. So in addition to the production trucks, a satellite uplink truck
was also on site. That required buying satellite time and coordinating all the feeds to PBS and
others. For example, in 1993, the first two hours were available only to pay-per-view subscribers
by a scrambled signal. The last two hour needed to be available to both the pay-viewers and PBS
in the clear (unscrambled). During the pay-per-view, the signal left the Jackson uplink on the
KU-band, was downlinked in Texas, re-scrambled and uplinked again in C-band. The
pay-per-view sites had special decoders that allowed only them to unscramble the signal. Timing
was critical: the first six finalists had to be finished by 8:45 p.m. to allow for 15 minutes of
alignment testing with PBS. At 8:45, Texas turned off the scrambling and the Top 6 corps went
live to the PBS network and anyone in the world with a backyard dish.


Was It Worth It?

DCI on TV was a labor of love for most all who were involved with my team. WTIU, DCI and
the Cook Group all came together and created a very special, unique environment that allowed
us to showcase drum corps in the best light we knew how. The television medium remains the
most persuasive - and pervasive - form of communication in the world. Nothing else even comes
close. Trying to adapt that medium to drum corps is an enormous task, which requires just the
right combination of people and equipment. We tried to make it a television event, not merely a
record of the year's championship - something worthy of the effort the corps put into their shows. 
Without the investment of time, skill, and yes, money, DCI on TV is destined to be surfed-by as
just another infomercial.

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