They topped the charts when they were released -- then they disappeared into obscurity. Every decade has those songs that are cherished and remembered, but what about the songs that aren’t? WHRV Host Jeff Sandner is giving those songs the attention they deserve with his program Lost in the Shuffle.

A longtime fan of music and pop culture, Sandner has worked in radio since 1993 and said he loves listening to the music he grew up with -- anything from Top 40 and Rock to Classic Rock. When listening to commercial stations he frequently found himself disappointed by repetitive playlists and realized many of the older songs he remembered were being neglected. That’s when he decided to start his own show.

“It’s hopefully a chance now to give the artist their due respect on certain songs,” he said. Carefully curating his playlist is a freedom afforded to him by working in public media.

“Nine times out of ten if you work for commercial radio the disc jockey does not have the option of playing what they want to play; it's pretty much a tight playlist,” he explained.

He began the show with music from 1970, and has been working through successive years with each episode--sometimes dedicating more than one episode to a year. For some years, like 1980, he said it was difficult to narrow down his choices. A sampling of songs he that chose to highlight include: "Come Back" by The J. Geils Band, "Even It Up" by Heart, "Special Lady" by Ray, Goodman & Brown, "Romeo's Tune" by Steve Forbert, and "Back On My Feet Again" by The Babys. He also features news headlines, facts, movie clips and other nostalgic elements from the featured year.

Sandner’s biological grandfather Sam Poland, a man he never met, was a popular DJ in Charleston, West Virginia, in the ‘50s. You could say it was in his “gene pool,” but radio really started to click in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s when a friend’s stepfather, an overnight DJ and sportscaster, invited Sandner to see the station’s studios on multiple occasions. He also got to tag along during station events like softball games and remotes. Now as an announcer himself, he said he relishes the opportunity to highlight music’s “underdogs.”

You can hear Lost in the Shuffle at 10 p.m. on Fridays on 89.5 FM, or catch up on past episodes at whro.org/lostintheshuffle.

 

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