Rocket Radio, summer 2000

"Radio in Sweden Sucks?"

Sweden is renowned as the third largest exporter of music in the world ­ the majority of the music being in the pop and rock genres.  Logically, Stockholm is the place that many aspiring Swedish musicians flock to launch their careers.  Yet mainstream American music absorbs the attention of the Swedish media, and many good Swedish rock bands receive more airplay in Japan and the United States than in their home country.

Five years ago, Bandit radio was the station that filled the void in the Stockholm rock scene.  Bandit was an English language station that played music from a wider time span and greater genre mix than most other commercial stations would dare.  Their motto was "Radio in Sweden Sucks ­ We Suck Less," responding to the over produced generic stations like NRJ.  Bandit’s unusual approach was rewarded with a dedicated following and the respect of many musicians themselves.  However, an ownership change and finances eventually got in the way and Bandit was forced to change format.  All of the Bandit deejays were laid off, including my brother, Eric Paglia.

Eric continued to fight for a quality rock station in Stockholm, and eventually started Rocket Radio on his own.  He built the Rocket format to include rock music from the past forty years, with a preference towards new Swedish rock.  Rocket is broadcast on 95,3 MHz, one of Stockholm’s two community access (Närradio) frequencies.  These frequencies are shared by an eclectic mix of political parties, church groups, immigrant associations, and student radio broadcasts among others which form a unique radio underground.

At first Eric broadcast on his own a few hours a day from the basement of the Filedelphia church at St. Eriksplan, Stockholm.  As momentum gradually built, he took on other fledgling deejays, beginning with Joakim "El Padre" Bergström, Marc "the Shark" Van den Bossche, and former Bandit deejay and program director Gene "the Professor" Kraut.  Rocket attracted the same audience as had Bandit, and many of the previous Bandit listeners were ecstatic that Rocket had picked up the torch.

Now four years later, Rocket has grown substantially.  The station has moved from the church basement to the newly renovated studio at Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH)’s student union building.  Rocket is broadcast every weekday starting at 12 p.m. and through the afternoon and early evening.  The staff has grown to incorporate five regular deejays, and the occasional guest deejay.  Including the webmaster, Rocket’s graphic design artist, interns and other contributors, Rocket has about fifteen people involved with its daily operation.

My own part in Rocket started this summer.  I have been primarily involved in the webpage (www.rocket.fm) but have also done some deejaying.  The computer side of Rocket has been steadily increasing ­ this summer we got our new cataloging software "Selector" up and running, a few new editing programs were added, and the new server allows us to use the more advanced features of Real Producer.  There is also a new web page, "Rock Over Sweden" (www.rockoversweden.com) which is devoted entirely to Swedish music news.

We have been developing video content for the homepage, including live in studio performances by visiting bands, interviews and music videos.   The first live webcast was "The Ark," one of the most popular new groups in Sweden this year.  Half and hour before the broadcast, I was running around trying to connect all the cables as the Ark sound checked, trying not to step on the five piece band’s equipment.  When everything came together minutes before the broadcast, I was immensely relieved.  The videos are still up on the webpage in streaming format.

Since then we have also had guests in the studio like The Oyster band, Hefner, Last Days of April, S.t.a.b.b., and an interview with the American band Everclear.  It gets a little easier every time we have a band in the studio, though there is still so much to think about.  We have gotten a new computer and web server to deal with the video content (video takes up extreme amounts of hard drive space), and several new programs.  All of our web content is streaming, which means you do not need to download the files before you can listen to or watch them.  You can hear the Rocket broadcast anywhere in the world -- we have received fan mail from the UK, Italy, America and Australia to name a few.

Although we have neither the transmitting power or the budget of the bigger radio stations, I believe Rocket has a more loyal following than any other station in Stockholm.  It is difficult to align yourself with a commercial conglomerate that broadcasts the same songs three times in an hour.  Rocket has an independent spirit that people seem to connect to, and that is why it continues to thrive.  On a personal level, I have met some great people by working at Rocket and I am very glad to have had the experience.
 
/Nicole Paglia