Bill Dance Outdoors Blog

As most of you probably already know, the television industry is now going through a period of upgrading to digital and/or high definition and as an independent producer, we at Bill Dance Outdoors are also just beginning that phase.

 There will be a period from now through the next two years when the VERSUS network will air some of our shows in regular format and a few in letterbox (letterbox is where there is a black stripe across both the top and bottom of the picture on your screen). Without going into a lot of technical detail, which I’m still trying to absorb myself, let me just say the reason for this involves a complicated transition plan resulting in some of our shows being simulcast on both the Versus high definition channel and the regular analog channel (this is likely to begin early in 2008, but even now you might see a show in letterbox style as mentioned above).

As of now, we’re already shooting our shows with the new, superior quality high definition equipment, but we still have some already shot regular style that have yet to be edited and aired.  It’s going to be a while before you can start seeing our shows regularly in full high definition.

The bottom line is that the Versus Network will decide which broadcast format they’ll use and during the next 18 months at least ( but primarily beginning in Jan 08) our shows will be aired in some varied formats which we have no control over.
We hope you’ll bear with us in this transition period of making our show quality better for you, and hope you’ll continue to watch all our shows, regardless of format.

One reason is that for many years, my film crew and I traveled across North America getting back home far less than we would have liked to. Then, over 20 years ago, as a result of sponsor surveys and asking a lot of questions of viewers ourselves, we realized that a very high percentage of our viewers preferred that our TV time be spent on fishing education, not treatments on  “where-to-go.” Besides, plenty of other shows were making “location” their prime objective and they still do.

As a result, and at the request of some of our biggest sponsors, we decided to change Bill Dance Outdoors to a totally educational format. And when you do “how-to,” it doesn’t make a lot of difference where you’re fishing as long as the terrain and conditions are correct for what you’re trying to teach.

But there was another very important reason for our decision that might surprise you. When we were still always giving the taping location of our shows, we would get a ton of mail every week from area fishermen chastising us for publicizing their favorite holes! Some of this was often to the point of being threatening, believe it or not!

On rare occasions,  when it tends to serve some purpose, we do still point out where we’re fishing, but as a general rule, we don’t. And hey, I’m also proud to say that an added desirable result of this was that it also cut down some on our time away from home. Before long, my own dogs even began to recognize me again when I drove in the driveway?