I’ve been watching some of the NBC and CBS coverage of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. My wife is a (semi)reformed band geek, so she wanted to see the parade. Also, since WCC (World’s Cutest Child) likes parades, we had a triple reason to tune in (1 for the wife, and 2 for the kid).

So, we tuned in, looking forward to seeing some floats and some bands. But, what do we get? Broadway show tunes and promos for upcoming NBC shows… Maybe CBS will have some of the actual parade… Nope. Instead, the cast of CBS’s Daytime programming just “drop by” for a chat… between musicians promoting their new albums.

So, for both of the broadcasts of the parade, all they did was self-promote and show commercial acts. Stephenson High School from Stone Mountain got about 10 seconds on CBS. I think they got almost 20 seconds on NBC… just enough to say who they were… and hear a VERY short clip of music.

I think that both of these networks have forgotten what the parade is about. While one could certainly argue that it isn’t a non-commercial event… sponsored and even owned by Macy’s… it isn’t PURELY a commercial event. It is a Holiday Event. Don’t the kids that raised thousands of dollars to travel to the parade to perform, because they thought it would be an honor, deserve more than a passing mention on the way to professional performers that are their to promote their latest product?

One thing that was mentioned on CBS in their short mention of the Stephenson High School Marching Band is that the graduating Seniors have garnered $10,000,000 in musical scholarships for college. If they read the teleprompter right… all I can say is WOW! Congrats to the Stephenson High School Marching Band for getting to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade AND The Rose Parade.

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