Music Director David Christensen and In House host Jeremy Petersen recently answered a few questions about opbmusic.

Q: Where did the concept for opbmusic come from?

David: We began thinking about an HD-radio music channel more than two years ago. We thought there was a need for an independent music channel that would serve music fans in Oregon, music they might not be able to find elsewhere on the radio. As we got further along in planning, it became clear that the Web would be at the center of opbmusic, providing interactive components along with a 24/7 stream. It just grew from there. And the in-studio sessions, I think we were all surprised at how important they'd become – or how great they'd sound – until we started doing them. The time we're taking with them and the great engineering make the difference. You can really hear it.

Q. What’s the best way to listen to opbmusic?

Jeremy: It's fun to listen while watching American Idol with the volume turned down. It helps restore faith in humanity (somewhat). Otherwise, it kind of depends on what you want out of it. You can listen online to the 24-hour stream using the media player of your choice, or you can listen on an HD radio (which are increasingly affordable, by the way). For sound quality, the clear choice is to go the HD route. Otherwise, there are a growing number of ways to listen to streaming Internet audio aside from sitting at your computer – Roku radios, for example.

David: I'm personally a fan of the Roku radio I use at home, but there are other devices that will do the same thing – stream opbmusic's Web stream over your home wireless network or cable Internet. I'm getting an HD radio in my car too. The tabletop HD radios I've heard can sound really good.

Q. What part do you play?

David: I played a major role in developing the music service, from the ground up. As the music director, I'm responsible for the content heard on opbmusic. I program most of the music for the stream, and host. I assist with some engineering, coordinate events, produce in-studio sessions. It's all about the music so I'm always searching for and listening to new music.

Jeremy: I'm on bass (mostly an easy part, luckily). I'm also one of the hosts you'll hear on the stream, and I host the weekend show on OPB radio, In House, on Saturday and Sunday nights. I also produce and edit in-studio sessions, and I post terribly witty ramblings on the blog at opbmusic.org. In addition, if need be, I can pitch, play shortstop and left field.

Q. Why an online music service – opbmusic.org?

David: We think it's important to design programming for the new media we have, and make it available to as many people as we can. We're on our HD-2 channel in Portland (KOPB-FM2 91.5), and on traditional FM weekends with the program In House. But the Web makes sense for this. Broadband is becoming closer to ubiquitous and wireless access keeps growing. New devices are coming out all the time that let people tap Web programming easily. Being online seems the way to get opbmusic into your hands. Or ears.

Jeremy: Aside from the fact that it's far easier and less expensive to launch than a radio signal, it is also the future. That's right, along with hovercraft and meals in pill form, streaming music on the Web will likely be the norm – and probably the most likely of those three. Studies show the number of people who listen to music this way increasing every year, and that seems likely to grow as wireless capabilities, Internet speed and new options for streaming audio do, too.

What's HD radio?

David: My not completely technical explanation is this: It's digital content delivered over your traditional FM band. OPB is now sending multiple digital channels over the same frequency, and with an HD radio you can pick which one to listen to. In Portland, with an HD radio, you can tune to 91.5, the first channel, and get OPB Radio's programming. Turn the dial a tiny bit to the right, and the display changes to "2," and you'll hear opbmusic. It sounds great. Unfortunately, HD hasn't gotten consumers' attention yet. When people hear the difference, they may jump. They do have to buy the new HD radio of course, but the prices on those are coming down.

Q: In what ways do you see opbmusic serving Oregon's communities?

Jeremy: Ideally, it can be both a source of new and interesting music coming from outside the region that people might not otherwise hear, and a resource for Oregonians to hear what's going on around them, whether that means an upstart band from Roseburg, a touring act playing Corvallis, or opbmusic sponsoring a show in Bend or Portland.

David: In geographical terms, we are offering a music service accessible to all Oregonians. Right now, we've been fairly Portland-centric in focus, because there are so many great bands to talk about and hear. We're planning to make the focus wider though, including more events in other communities and bands from those communities. Listeners can always let us know if there are local bands we should hear about. Bands can send us music too – and they do. In non-geographical terms, we're actually trying to build an online community of listeners, involved, curious, passionate about music, and there are people everywhere who are looking for something that stimulates their musical interest, and we can be a place for them to land or stop by. Whether in Oregon or beyond, the "opbmusic community" is identifying itself.

Q: What do you want listeners to get from this service?

Jeremy: If they don't already have it, a passion for new music. There's a lot going on musically right now that deserves devotion and excitement, and listeners will hopefully see us as the place to discover it (alongside the unexpected old favorite from Pavement or Johnny Cash or R.E.M.). That said, I hope they also come to see it as a community of sorts, one where they can find one another and talk music, and offer their own opinions and feedback to opbmusic – the gist being that the old top-down relationship between programmer and listener gets shaken up a bit.

David: Of course, I want opbmusic.org to be a great place for music fans to visit and listen. If you listen to the music channel for 30 minutes, you're going to hear new music, local music, things you might not find elsewhere.

Q. How can listeners get involved with opbmusic?

Jeremy: Aside from wearing our t-shirts every day, plastering our stickers on their mode of transportation of choice, and telling all of their friends, they can rate and review songs at opbmusic.org. This is one of the coolest parts of the Web site so far, I think, because it gives people a fairly simple way to give immediate feedback that shapes what they'll be hearing on the stream. Listeners can also join the discussion on the blog, and since everyone around these parts is also a musician, submit music for potential airplay. This is really a work in progress because there are a lot of plans in the works for the Web site and new features that will allow for even more listener involvement.

Q. How is the music community in Portland responding to opbmusic?

Jeremy: I'm glad to say there's been a deluge of interest so far in opbmusic from Portland's own, and we've been able to feature in-studio sessions with artists like Loch Lomond, the Portland Cello Project and James Low, among others. Of course this also means a copious amount of e-mails which sometimes get lost in the pile or are slow to be replied to (sorry, music community). Needless to say, we're not going to suffer for lack of local talent.

David: The word is getting out that we're playing local music! We produce a great-sounding session when the bands do in-studios with opbmusic. It's not thrown together. We want people to hear what the band is about.

Q. Does this service highlight only Northwest bands?

David: Definitely not. We're trying to give a full picture of the music that's new and interesting from all over the place. Sweden just seems to be pumping out great acts one after another. Seattle has a lot of good bands. We're listening to a lot of music and playing what we think is most interesting and fits what we do.

Q. How do you find the bands?

Jeremy: E-mail, snail mail, randomly stumbling across Web sites at 3am.

David: Some from labels and promoters, some from the artists themselves, some we track down.

Jeremy: Some I discover sitting on my desk (their music, not the actual band).

David: When bands are playing locally we look for their music. And listeners have called our attention to bands too. In our "Best of 2007" lists, our listeners gave a lot of votes to the new record from the band Panda Bear, which we hadn't played. We checked it out and now it's part of opbmusic.

Jeremy: Wining and dining helps, too, but it doesn't guarantee anything (that's a joke, just so you know).

Q. Will you sponsor concerts? If so, how can I find out more?

David: Yes! We're putting notices about those on the Web site, and talking about them in the 24/7 music channel and In House.

Jeremy: We're sponsoring the McMenamin's Great Northwest Music Tour all year long, as well as the CD release show for the new album from Portland's Weinland in March, and the return of the Avett Brothers to Portland in April. The Web site, opbmusic.org, is the best place to find out about anything and everything we have going on.

Q. What attracted you to opbmusic?

Jeremy: Only everything: the chance to be at the start of something new, from the ground up, for starters; OPB's track record, both in the product they've put out, and the amazing support they receive from Oregonians; and the chance to be covering music in a place like Portland – I mean, really.

David: There's no doubt about it, building something from the ground up is cool. We need music, we need that shared experience through melody, harmony, rhythm and surprise. Music is passionate. Music is funny. Music stirs us. But back to the question, it's all exciting and I love that we're shining a light on great music making in our communities. That's totally OPB.

Last updated: 27 Feb 15:34