In most radio markets, stations branded as KISS FM play current Top 40 hits, but here in San Francisco that designation departs from the norm (surprise!), instead trumpeting music that’s decidedly older.

In place of the latest from Katy Perry, Flo Rida, and Maroon 5, The Bay’s Old School traffics in familiar, long-ago favorites. Tune in, and you’ll hear the likes of Prince, Madonna, Shannon, Human League, and Taylor Dayne blasting out. Or Mary Jane Girls, Pet Shop Boys, J.J. Fad, Wham!, and Cameo, all eliciting a state of instant bliss. There’s plenty of funk and disco-era gold too.

I listen to KISS FM most often at bedtime, a near-guaranteee of sweet dreams to come. What I particularly love is the station’s expanded playlist — accommodating Madonna’s “Everybody” and “Dress You Up” alongside “Holiday” and “Into The Groove” — and that I’m regularly reminded of songs that have since fallen off my radar. Like Keith Sweat‘s “I Want Her.”

Sweat came out swinging with the first single from his 1987 debut album, Make It Last Forever. “I Want Her” spent three weeks atop the R&B chart in January 1988 and the Harlem-born artist reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 that April. Co-written and produced with Teddy Riley, “I Want Her” heralded the rise of the New Jack Swing sound that would dominate pop and R&B music over the next few years.

Thanks to the magic of the Interweb, you can listen to 98.1 KISS FM even if you live miles away from The Bay. Trust me, you wanna.

Purchase Keith Sweat – “I Want Her” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.