The Rocket (newspaper)

The Rocket was a free biweekly newspaper serving the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, published from 1979–2000. The newspaper's chief purpose was to document local music. This focus distinguished it from other area weeklies such as the Seattle Weekly and the Willamette Week, which reported more on local news and politics. Originally solely a Seattle-based newspaper, a Portland, Oregon edition was introduced in 1991. In general, the two editions contained the same content, with some slight variations (i.e., different concert calendars) although occasionally they ran different cover stories.

Bob McChesney, the paper's founder and publisher, had been active as a salesman for the Seattle Sun, a weekly alternative newspaper that competed with the Seattle Weekly. Frustrated by the paper’s refusal to cover Seattle’s then-burgeoning music-scene, the Sun’s arts editor, Robert Ferrigno, and art director, Bob Newman, started The Rocket as a companion publication to the Sun, with its first issue appearing in October 1979. By April of the following year, Ferrigno, Newman and McChesney raised enough money to produce the issues of The Rocket on their own. Ferrigno would edit the publication from 1979–1982. Published on a monthly schedule, during that period The Rocket had articles about such bands as Patti Smith, The Blackouts, The Enemy, and The Jitters. Publisher McChesney insisted that the newspaper also cover major label arena bands, and Ferrigno and his writing staff reluctantly agreed to do so, but only if they could “trash them” in the articles.

By January 1982, the paper’s circulation had grown to 50,000 copies per month. The magazine managed to attract writers and cartoonists such as Jeff Christensen, Roberta Penn, Lynda Barry, John Keister, Wes Anderson, and Charles R. Cross. The editors and writers constantly attempted to cover only “fairly obscure alternative bands” in the local area, such as The Fartz, The Allies, The Heats/The Heaters, Visible Targets, Red Dress, and The Cowboys. Publisher McChesney continued to insist that “mainstream material” be given equal time.

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