CPR, Channel 12 team for "OpenAir Live & Local"

[Colorado Media Newsroom]

From The Denver Post:



Denver’s music scene is about to get double the exposure: A new 13-episode TV series, “OpenAir Live & Local,” a collaboration between Colorado Public Television Channel 12 and Colorado Public Radio’s OpenAir (1340 AM), premieres Sept. 27 at 9:30 p.m. on Channel 12.

The series will replay sessions by local bands recorded for OpenAir in the CPR Performance Studio. Expect a range, from singer-songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov to hip-hop supergroup Wheelchair Sports Camp, according to CPR’s Vice President of Music Doug Clifton.

“We’ve been looking for opportunities to collaborate for some time,” Clifton said. “They wanted to meet, were very interested in what we were doing with our performance studios. We figured early on that videos needed to be shot of everything we did in performance space. We started doing YouTube videos, 379 to date on our channel, more than 300 of them local bands.”

Channel 12 approached CPR with the idea. “They were looking for 30-minute show on Saturday nights.”

OpenAir’s Mike Flanagan, Jessi Whitten and Alisha Sweeney will serve as hosts, providing commentary on the local scene. Performances will feature Colorado artists Ark Life, Zach Heckendorf, Paper Bird, Dragondeer and more. Episodes will be available on the YouTube channels for CPT12 and OpenAir after the telecasts.

The first 13 installments are in the can. Channel 12 does all the editing and production, hosts give a riff on next video, two videos play back to back, five videos per show. Heather Dalton, Channel 12, is directing. The bands, most of whom don’t have professional quality audition tapes, are allowed to post the videos on their websites.

Sounds like a win-win.


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