The name is a pun and a mission statement in one word. Bakkenroll Radio broadcasts from Williston, North Dakota, right at the center of the Bakken shale oil region, and its tagline, "We're not jackin' around," is aimed squarely at the workforce that transformed this stretch of the state over the last two decades.
A Town That Doubled Almost Overnight
Williston was a quiet town of around 12,000 people before the Bakken oil boom, which took off after the 2006 discovery of the Parshall Oil Field and peaked around 2012, arrived and changed nearly every part of daily life. Production jumped from under 100,000 barrels a day in 2007 to roughly one million barrels a day by 2014, and Williston's population doubled between 2010 and 2020 as workers poured in from across the country and the world (Wikipedia). Oil companies built entire "man camps" of trailers and temporary housing just to keep up, and shifts routinely ran 12 to 17 hours through summers and winters that swung to either extreme (When In Your State).
Classic Rock, Comedy Breaks, and Every Hour Is Cocktail Hour
Bakkenroll Radio's format is built for exactly that audience, long shifts, hard weather, and a need for something loud and familiar on the drive out to the rig. The station streams classic hits from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s around the clock, broken up with comedy segments hosted by Eric "Puddin" Lorentzen, under a schedule the station itself bills as "Every Hour is Cocktail Hour."
- 70s through 2000s classic rock, the core soundtrack running continuously.
- Comedy breaks, hosted segments that give the station a personality beyond a pure jukebox format.
- Oilfield-first branding, a name and tagline built specifically for the region's dominant industry.
- Regional reach, covering Williston, Watford City, Bismarck, Minot, and surrounding counties into Eastern Montana.
Radio for the Workforce That Rebuilt a Region
The Bakken boom brought together an unusually diverse workforce for rural North Dakota, people from wildly different backgrounds who ended up sharing punishing hours and remote housing in pursuit of oilfield paychecks. A radio station built to be "loud, proud, and funny as hell" gives that workforce something the boom itself never quite provided: a shared, familiar soundtrack that doesn't require explanation.
Why It's Worth a Spot in Your Rotation
Bakkenroll Radio wears its regional identity without any pretense, classic rock and comedy built for people working brutal hours in one of America's defining modern boomtowns. Whether or not you've ever set foot on a drilling pad, the station delivers exactly the loud, unfiltered energy its name promises.
Stream Bakkenroll Radio Free on Radio Shuffle
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