NOW That’s What I Call NEW WAVE! On Sydney’s Big Electric Cat

The PopCulteer
July 3, 2026

The AIR Celebrates Ten Years All Week Long

It’s been a decade since The AIR became the internet radio station of PopCult, and to celebrate, we’re in the middle of a week of all-new episodes of our music specialty shows.  Friday afternoon our radio station brings you classic Disco and mainstream 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 featured programming.  This Sunday, beginning at 9 AM, we proudly re-present the debut episodes of our music and comedy programming from July, 2016.

MIRRORBALL

Friday at 2 PM on The AIR, Mel Larch devotes a full hour of her classic Disco program to songs intended to take your minds off of how unbearably hot it is now.

Fifty years ago, back before global warming was proven to be a real thing, after all, the summers still got hot enough to cause dogs to make people go on killing sprees. To cool things down, folks flocked to Discos…some of which were air-conditioned.

We never promised that our themes for this should would always be more than just an excuse to play classic Disco.

Check out the playlist…

MIRRORBALL 127

The Silver Connection “No No Joe”
Barry White “What Am I Gonna Do With You”
Donna summer “I Feel Love (Mega Edit)
Van McCoy “The Hustle”
Diana Ross “I’m Coming Out”
Moments & Whatnauts “Girls”
Johnnie Taylor “Disco Lady”
Shirley & Company “Disco Shirley”
Ohio Players “Fire”
Penny McLean” “1-2-3-4 Fire”
Sister Sledge “The Best Disco In Town”
Boney M “Daddy Cool”
The Commodores “Hold On”
Dooley Silverspoon “Bump Me Baby Pt One”
Harpo “Horroscope”

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.

NOW That’s What I Call New Wave on Sydney’s Big Electric Cat 

Friday at 3 PM, for the tenth anniversary of her show, Sydney Fileen mines the fertile soil of the first three volumes of the legendary British music hits compilation, NOW That’s What I Call Music, for an all-star mixtape of top New Wave hits that proves how big New Wave was, and how diverse the music charts used to be.

It’s remarkable that so much fresh, new music was actually commercially successful at the same time. It’s equally remarkable that, four decades later, only a handful of the artists in this show have passed away.

It must be something about the music.

Check out the playlist…

BEC 139

Duran Duran “Is There Something I Should Know”
Heaven 17 “Temptation”
Malcolm McLaren “Double Dutch”
Men Without Hats “The Safety Dance”
Men At Work “Down Under”
Kajagoogoo “Big Apple”
The Human League “(Keep Feeling) Fascination”
Howard Jones “New Song”
The Cure “The Lovecats”
Simple Minds “Waterfront”
Madness “The Sun And The Rain”
Culture Club “Victims”
Thomspon Twins “Hold Me Now”
Carmel “More More More”
Nena “99 Red Balloons”
Cyndi Lauper “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”
Tracey Ullman “My Guy”
Frankie Goes To Hollywood “Relax”
Eurythmics “Here Comes The Rain Again”
The Smiths “What Difference Does It Make”
Fiction Factory “Feels Like Heaven”
Re-Flex “The Politics of Dancing”
Thomas Dolby “Hyperactive”
China Crisis “Wishful Thinking”
Big Country “Wonderland”
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark “Locomotion”
Ultravox “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes”
The Flying Pickets “When You’re Young And In Love”
Blancmange “Don’t Tell Me”
The Special AKA “Nelson Mandela”
Bronski Beat “Small Town Boy”

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.