Online music channel DittyTV.com building community in Memphis

Courtesy of Ronnie Wright

Doug Easley (left) and Ronnie Wright record a test broadcast of Memphis act Deering & Down for Wright's DittyTV online music channel.

What is DittyTV?

If you can't attend Kinky Friedman's benefit concert for the Folk Alliance International on Wednesday night, you can catch it online for free. The show is being streamed as the latest and most high profile in a series of test webcasts for DittyTV, a start-up online music channel based in Memphis.

The channel is the brainchild of Ronnie Wright, an IT consultant, part-time musician and audio engineer from Washington who envisions DittyTV as a "live, 24/7 streaming network that's going to be focused on independent original music."

When it launches early next year, DittyTV will offer a diverse array of music-based programming, including live concerts, children's shows, interviews, reviews, educational videos, music video shows and more. While some programs, like the Friedman concert, will be produced at the channel's Downtown production house, Memphis Studios, online video and conferencing technology means that content could theoretically come from anywhere.

"It'll certainly highlight Memphis, but hopefully it's going to include content from all over the world," Wright says. "The goal is to really build this great online community of people from all over, united by a love of music and covering different topics."

Viewers will be able to view content on the website, dittytv.com, but the goal is also to strike deals with websites like Boxee and Hulu as well as devices like Netflix's Roku to carry the channel.

Five years ago, Wright and his wife, Amy, a native Memphian, were looking for a home base from which to launch their venture when they struck upon the idea of returning to her hometown.

The fact that his wife is from Memphis and her family is here was a big part of the decision to move to Bluff City, "but a lot of it had to do with it just being an incredible music city. We did consider a few others before we settled on Memphis. But it's incredible here, with the past, the present and the future all co-existing. It's just such a creative city across the board -- the art, the film, just the general spirit of the place. I was drawn to it."

The Wrights bought a building on South Main and have been slowly renovating it into a state-of-the-art video production and webcast production facility. Memphis Studios' main room is outfitted with a bank of remote-controlled lights and cameras, allowing the whole operation to be controlled from a two-man booth. Even the dressing room has cameras in it to capture behind-the-scenes interviews.

DittyTV.com went into beta testing with the help of the International Folk Alliance. In the past month, the channel has broadcast concerts by alliance-affiliated local acts such as Caleb Sweazy, Star & Micey, Deering & Down and, earlier this week, Andy Cohen.

Wright plans on teaming again with the Folk Alliance in February to broadcast performers in town for the organization's annual conference.

© 2011 Go Memphis. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.