East Carolina Pirates: Strange Aftermath of the Band Protest
The East Carolina Pirates will not be heard on the radio in Fayetteville, NC because of the band protest last game.
It has been a rough three weeks for the East Carolina Pirates. Just after their big win against the rival NC State Wolfpack, the Pirates have lost three straight games. This included last weekend’s loss to the Central Florida Knights in the conference opener.
Yet it is not the three game losing streak that has garnered attention early this week. Neither the close loss to South Carolina nor the big loss to Virginia Tech did that. No, the issue has to do with something almost out of the control of the football team. That would be the marching band.
The ECU marching band had several members protest while playing the anthem. Some stood in formation and did not play while others played but did so from a kneeling posture. It was their version of the Colin Kaepernick protests to illustrate the mistreatment of African-Americans.
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Their action (as is the nature of protest) was not particularly embraced. There were some East Carolina fans who even booed the band at their halftime performance. Yet the least logical reaction has to belong to a radio affiliate in Fayetteville, NC.
100.1 FM decided not to broadcast the ECU-USF game this Saturday on its air waves over the protest. That’s right, a radio station will not air a game because of a visual protest that ultimately has little to do with East Carolina football one way or the other. Thankfully the radio audience will not be witness if the band does it again. Protest the protest indeed.
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To be fair, this is Fayetteville that we are talking about. This is the hub for the Fort Bragg military base and its radio coverage is what the serving men and women will hear for local radio. The anthem means something a little more for that demographic. I’m not sure even they would want lose a football game over the reasons previously stated.
As for the band, it sounds like they will attempt to prevent future unauthorized protests. I am not sure how one polices a large number of people where some are bent on making political statements. It is unlikely that they would kick them out of the band, but they might hold members from participating in pregame. At the most extreme they could remove the band from pregame duties altogether.