Roger Passero has been a record collector since he was five years old, and he ran a record store in New Jersey for fifteen years before it ever occurred to him to start a radio station (WNY Papers). Today he runs Viva Nostalgia, a pop-culture collectibles shop in historic Lewiston, New York, and out of the back of that shop comes WVNR Viva Nostalgia Radio, a 24/7 oldies station built entirely around his own 2,000-plus song collection and the village he calls home.
Born in the Back of a Toy Store
Passero launched WVNR in 2019, broadcasting from the same Lewiston storefront where he sells vintage toys, lunchboxes, and pop-culture memorabilia. His reasoning was simple: he'd spent a lifetime collecting music, from a 1983 record shop through decades of buying albums, CDs, and tapes, and commercial radio's tight rotations had started to bore him. "If you're into music, this is music history," he told a local paper, contrasting his deep catalog with stations that replay the same two or three hits from an artist on loop.
He runs the station on Live365 with scheduling software called MIX, programming the rotation himself from his own collection rather than leasing a syndicated feed (WNY Papers).
1964 to 1989, the Long Way Around
WVNR's format covers a specific 25-year stretch, classic oldies running from 1964 through 1989, from the Beatles' arrival through the closing years of the 80s (Viva Nostalgia Radio). The pitch isn't just decade nostalgia, it's depth. Passero built the station specifically to dig past the handful of singles that dominate most classic-rock playlists.
- One-hit wonders, the singles that charted once and then disappeared from regular rotation everywhere else.
- Forgotten hits, tracks that mattered at the time but rarely survive into modern oldies playlists.
- Rare cuts from the 60s and 70s, pulled straight from a personal collection built over four decades.
- A dedicated Beatles-to-80s arc, giving the whole quarter-century room to breathe instead of looping the same dozen songs.
There's no identified-song data logged yet on Radio Shuffle, but given the format, expect deep cuts you won't hear on a typical classic hits station.
Lewiston, the Village That Refuses to Let Go of Its Main Street
Lewiston sits on the Niagara River, a small historic village that trades heavily on its 19th-century downtown and tourist-friendly Main Street, the kind of place where a record collector turned shop owner can launch a radio station and have the whole town actually notice. WVNR leans into that directly: local businesses like Apple Granny Restaurant and Sgt. Peppers Hot Sauces get woven into the broadcast as on-air sponsors (Medioq), and the station runs a recurring Lewiston event calendar every three hours.
Passero was explicit about why that local angle works in Lewiston specifically: "people love Lewiston. People come here from all over this region to hang out", which means listeners actually pay attention to a hyper-local thirty-second mention between songs (WNY Papers).
Captain Rockit's Time Machine
The flagship show is Captain Rockit's Time Machine, billed as a journey through classic oldies "way back...back into time", broadcast right out of the same Center Street address as the toy shop and the station itself. It's a fitting centerpiece for a station built by someone who sees music collecting, toy collecting, and broadcasting as three branches of the same lifelong hobby.
Why It's Worth Your Time
Most oldies stations are run by programming directors picking from a syndicated library. WVNR is run by a guy who has personally owned, sorted, and loved every record in the rotation since he was a kid. That difference is audible: deeper cuts, less repetition, and a genuine hometown thread running through the breaks. If you grew up on the Beatles through the end of the 80s and you're tired of hearing the same six songs from that era on every station, this is the one built specifically to fix that.
Stream WVNR Viva Nostalgia Radio Free on Radio Shuffle
Tune in to WVNR Viva Nostalgia Radio on Radio Shuffle, no account, no app, no fee. Press play and you'll land somewhere in a 25-year stretch of classic oldies, curated one record at a time by a Lewiston shop owner who's been collecting since he was five.