In the days following 9/11, there was often the mention of comfort foods (as I recall, pizza places had a major uptick of deliveries). For me, music was comfort, but I found myself going back to the music of my childhood. It coincided with my discovery of a fantastic website called Live365.

I listened for about a year, searching out stations that played music from the '80s, especially the early '80s, and finally decided to set up a station of mine own where I could hear exactly what I wanted. Thus, Pop Go The '80s went on the air, over the internet, in January of 2003.

What exactly is the premise behind Pop Go The '80s? I wanted it to be an escape by recreating what you might have heard if you could tune your radio to the early '80s. It means that I play songs that I loved (and some I still love) alongside songs that Iwould have led me to change the station back then (some of which now give me a pleasant, nostalgic feeling). The common denominator is that since I, like many music fans I imagine, started listening to Top 40 radio, my station only plays songs that actually were Top 40 hits in the US.

The result is a playlist of over 325 songs with roughly 30 new ones added each week, 30 older ones dropped, and a library of songs that is incredibly eclectic. I remember when I first started listening to music, it was a popular Top 40 station in the Midwest to which I tuned. They would play hits by Billy Squiet and hits by Alabama. Side by side, you could hear soft rock from Air Supply and harder pop like Journey or hair metal by Quiet Riot and Ratt. There were icons of the time like Hall & Oates and one-hit wonders like Sneaker. And, of course, there were the New Wave and synth-pop groups like Men At Work, A Flock Of Seagulls, and Human League. All on one station.

And that's what you'll hear on Pop Go The '80s - nothing but Top 40 hits from the years of 1980 through 1985, whether it was #1 for eight weeks like The Police's "Every Breath You Take" or spent a mere week at #40 like Rainbow's "Stone Cold." We also tag each song with its year, peak position, and original album of the song's release.

Pop Go The '80s features a full slate of regularly scheduled specialty shows. Each day there is a three-hour block spotlighting hits of a specific year and there are two-hour blocks, twice a week, where you can hear the latest songs added to our playlist. On Monday mornings, we play softer rock and pop hits from artists like Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, Toto, and Sheena Easton to ease you into the work week. Each Friday we devote two-hours to funk and R&B hits of the period. And, on Thursdays, we have our own countdown of the 40 most popular songs according to our listeners (recent #1s have included "Hold Me Now" by Thompson Twins and Dan Fogelberg's "Longer").

So, if you want to take refuge in the Top 40 hits of the early to mid-'80s, put down the pizza, and check us out at Pop Go The '80s.