This local music site is a labor of love for South Sider Bill Streeter.

Streeter, who is a “graphic designer, A/V geek, husband, dad, artist, thinker, human being and some other things,” told me his main goal is to spread the word about unique happenings and bands in St. Louis.

Streeter’s little media experiment has turned into a formidable portal for music fans in St. Louis. The site’s meat and potatoes is Streeter’s award-winning video blog. It’s comprised of short, well-edited video reports on bands and events, folding live footage into interview clips. Streeter does a bang up job, holding loose and often funny conversations with his subjects.

The social networking side of Lo-Fi, called the Circuit, appears loosely patterned after MySpace. Fans and bands can create profiles and communicate with each other in forums.

I caught up with Streeter after he retooled the site recently.

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Q: How have you changed your format?

A: The idea is kind of patterned after a TV season. I’m doing two 10-week seasons, with the current Spring season and another in the Fall. I still post two videos per week, but I sort of shifted focus a little to more of a documentary format with more interviews, for example. I wanted to expand the focus beyond live music. I also launched Lo-Fi Sessions (Lofisessions.com.) It’s like the John Peel sessions with live performances, except it’s for the camera.

Q: Do you have a background in film?

A: I moved here in 2001 from Chicago where I had attended film school. We moved mainly because we had friends here and liked it here. I became a graphic artist and web designer.

Q: And how did you come up with the Lo-Fi idea?

A: I did some graphic work with Pro-Vel Records and some web work with the Howard Dean campaign. That was when I was first exposed to blogging and the power of blogs. I was looking for a side project and found out about podcasting. Then I thought it would be cool to have a local social networking site.

Q: What has surprised you most after running the site for four years?

A: The art events that have come about because of the Circuit. Visual artists have actually taken to it more than everyone else, which surprised me.

www.lofistl.com

Check out how Lo-Fi has changed over the years on the Wayback Machine: