Disco Songs You Know By Heart and Power Pop You Don’t On The AIR

The PopCulteer
September 11, 2026

I know it’s an anniversary today, but it’s one I choose not to make a show of observing. Instead, we have radio notes for you.

We have all-new episodes of our music specialty shows this Friday afternoon, as our radio station brings you classic Disco and obscure New Wave Music on The AIR. Tune in as we serve up new episodes of MIRRORBALL and Sydney’s Big Electric Cat! The AIR is PopCult‘s sister radio station. You can hear these shows on The AIR website, or just click on the embedded player found elsewhere on this page.

Every Saturday we play catch-up and bring you a marathon of the previous week’s music specialty programming.

MIRRORBALL

Friday at 2 PM on The AIR, Mel Larch devotes a full hour of her classic Disco program to massive Disco hits from about half a century ago. These are some of the quintessential Disco hits, and you probably know and either love or hate them (or pretend to hate them while you secretly love them).

Whatever works for you. We’re just here to make people dance.

Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 128

Kool & The Gang “Celebration”
Candi Staton “Young Hearts Run Free”
Shalamar “A Night To Remember”
The Jackson 5 “Dancing Machine”
Van McCoy “The Hustle”
Dan Hartman “Relight My Fire”
The Isley Brothers “It’s a Disco Night (Rock Don’t Stop)”
McFadden & Whitehead “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now”
CHIC “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)”
Donna Summer “Love’s Unkind”
KC & The Sunshine Band “Get Down Tonight”
Heatwave “Boogie Nights”
The Hues Corporation “Rock The Boat”
Tavares “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel”
Earth Wind & fire “September”
Peaches & Herb “Shake Your Groove Thing”

You can hear MIRRORBALL every Friday at 2 PM, with replays most weeks  Monday at 9 AM and Tuesday at 1 PM and a four-hour mini-marathon of classic episodes Friday nights at 8 PM.

Power Pops And Fizzles On Big Electric Cat

Friday at 3 PM, Sydney Fileen delivers another show devoted to “New Wave Bands You Never Heard Of Before” with two hours of delightfully obscure UK Power Pop.

Power Pop was the happier offshoot of New Wave and Punk that brought the raw energy of this new music to classic melodies and harmonies.  This episode of BEC is loaded with toe-tapping shoulda-been-hits, by bands who only put out a few singles or maybe an album before falling off the face of the Earth.

Buried among these overlooked gems are bands that include future members of The Alarm and The Truth, as well as future superstar producers Richard Mazda and Steve Lillywhite. These are bands that sprung up in the wake of hitmakers like The Buzzcocks and The Jam, but sadly, despite their energy and enthusiasm, these are groups that didn’t make any hits.

Unless you’re a massive music nerd (not that being one is a bad thing), it’s not likely that you’ve ever heard any of the forty bands Sydney brings you on this program. So consider it a bonus, because even though it’s vintage New Wave Power Pop…it’s probably all new to you!

Check out the playlist…

BEC 140

The Invaders “Best Thing I Ever Did”
The Boyfriends “I’m In Love Today”
The Distractions “It Doesn’t Bother Me”
The Last Stands “Just A Number”
Really 3rds “Everyday, Everyway”
Seventeen “Don’t Let Go”
The Donkeys “Don’t go”
Slowguns “TV Movie”
The Stowaways “I Wanna Be Me”
Tonight “Money That’s Your Problem”
The Tours “Tourist Information”
The Keys “I Don’t Wanna Cry”
The Kick “Let’s Get Back Together”
Heroes “Some Kind Of Women”
The Squares “No Fear”
The Gas “Ignore Me”
The Strangeways “Show Her You Care”
The Paranoics “Stupid Guy”
Leyton Buzzard “I’m Hanging Around”
Yeh-Yeh “You Will Pay”
The Quads “There Must Be Thousands”
The Resistance “Survival Kit”
The Telegents “Seen It Before”
The Smirks “O.K, U.K.”
The Gangsters “Best Friend”
The Stilettos “This Is The Way”
Distractions “Something For The Weekend”
The Vipers “I’ve Got You”
Speedometers “Disgrace”
The Moondogs “Who’s Gonna Tell Mary”
The Vandells “Ruby Toot”
Spies “Thinking About The Sun”
Protex “A Place In The Heart”
The Zeroes “Hungry”
The Dazzlers “Lovely Crash”
The Lookalikes “Can I Take You Home”
Banditz “J.C.B.”
The Negatives “Money Talk”
The Monitors “Telegram”
Spys “The Young Ones”

Sydney’s Big Electric Cat is produced at Haversham Recording Institute in London, and can be heard every Friday at 3 PM, with replays Saturday afternoon,  Monday at 7 AM, Tuesday at 8 PM, Wednesday at Noon and Thursday at 10 AM, exclusively on The AIR. Classic episodes can be heard as part of the overnight Haversham Recording Institute marathon Tuesday mornings at 1 AM. .

That’s it for this week’s PopCulteer, check back for all our regular features, with fresh content, every day.