TV and HS Football

[JLGORMAN]

Across the nation, Sports channels are broadcasting HS Football games on Thursday and Friday nights. The amount of time offered for HS Bands to perform on TV is usually limited, however after watching a game last night I realized that to some extent Bands are their own worst enemy in getting TV Time.

This is the 3rd week of the HS season in TX and last night, Time Warner Cable for Central TX broadcast the San Antonio Brennan and Claudia Taylor Johnson game from NEISD stadium in San Antonio, TX. Since in TX both Bands perform at Halftime, I observed approximately 2 minutes given to both the CTJ and Brennan for performance time. While the Brennan Band is a good Band, they were clearly at a disadvantage with the over 220 instrumentalists of CTJ. CTJ marched 21 Tubas and 24 Trombones, typical of us Texans love for low Brass. I think they are well along in their preparation for the marching season. This lead me to contact Time Warner Cable to find out if they had some recommendations for Bands performing on Televised Football Games. Some of their recommendations are as follows
1. If you are being televised wear Full uniform. Yes it is hot but Polos and Shorts do not make a splashy sight on TV.

2. Be prepared to start the show at the end of the first half. Don"t waste time with announcements and set up be ready to start as soon as the teams leave the field. Second Band should be ready as soon as the 1st Band leaves the field. Cooperation between the Bands is essential.

3. Expect to have two minutes of time for each Bands performance. They have to do interviews and such with the rest of the time.

4. Playing games in Stadiums with good lighting and Turf make for better camera work. Since most of TX has Turf, this is an advantage. They also advised that New Lighting in stadiums is a must. The folks mentioned the Tesoro- La Habra game in CA as being an example of the stadium needing more high power lighting to get a good picture.

5. If you are chosen for a TV game, make everything as colorful as possible. It seems that we can expect more games to be Televised in the near future on a more frequent basis.