Attention radio programmers and listeners who long for that feeling of a good old pop song stuck in their head:

Donora has arrived.

The Pittsburgh trio closes out 2008 with a debut album that harks back to that golden era of New Wave/power pop, when bands like the Go-Go's, Missing Persons and Blondie lit up the airwaves.

"I like that comparison, but I wouldn't say that those bands are a huge influence," says singer-guitarist Casey Hanner. "That stuff is so cyclical, and I think a lot of pop trends are simply just heading in that direction again."

On cuts like "Shout," "Shhh" and "Weekend Tongue," Donora charms with driving beats, catchy riffs and sing-song cheerleader choruses often delivered with a cute little stutter from Casey. Try listening to "Shhh," with its bedside, whispered chorus, and then not want to hear it again 10 minutes later.

The songs cry out for radio play, and Rostrum Records, which broke Wiz Khalifa and now is branching out with its first pop band, will try to put them there. Were the songs written with radio in mind or was that just a happy accident?

"I don't think any of the songs were written with the approach of 'Would this be played on the radio?' " she says. "We were just trying to write songs that we would enjoy playing as a band and that our friends would enjoy hearing on a Friday night at the Brillobox. I think the production and the instrumentation of a song is what makes it 'radio-friendly.' And for us, that was more of an afterthought ... in some cases long after the songs were written."

Donora, which has become a popular live band in Pittsburgh, is fronted by Casey and brother Jake, who hail from Richland but just liked Donora as a band name. As explained in the band bio, "Jake H. met Casey a few hours after she was born. He was disappointed she was a girl and cried. Eighteen years later, he got over it, and they started a band. A few years after that, they suckered another kid named Jake into playing bass. After shooting down Casey's idea to name the band Casey and the Jakes, they became Donora."

That doesn't even mention the band's musical pedigree. Jake and Casey are the son and daughter of Dave Hanner, one-half of the veteran country-rock duo Corbin-Hanner. According to Casey, Dad never pushed this notion of a musical career on them.

"He's definitely not a 'stage father,' " she says. "In fact, I had to beg him to teach me how to play guitar, and he never really did. He bought me a guitar chord book and told me that if I really wanted to learn, I'd figure it out. And he was right. I think his advice for us is to just do what makes us happy."

While he may not have been big on guitar lessons, when it came time to record the album, Dad was manning the board.

"[He] recorded the album, helped produce the album and mixed it," Casey Hanner says. "So he is a huge part of this album. My brother has learned a lot about recording from my dad. And we've both learned a lot about songwriting from him, just by growing up around so much music all of the time. We have band practice at my dad's house, and any time we're not really sure about a certain part of a new song or the form of a song, we'll yell for my dad to come in and tell us what he thinks. Sometimes we don't listen to him, but in the end he's usually always right!"

Seeing Donora live, you might wonder where all the sound is coming from. Hanner says when she and her brother started working together five years ago, he started playing around with samples.

"He started sampling original guitar licks, or organ parts, or toy pianos, or any other instrument/noise-maker he found lying around my dad's house. He's got an amazing talent for turning ordinary instruments into really interesting sounds. So then Jake and I started writing songs together to these 'samples,' and he figured out how to play drums, sing back-up vocals and trigger single-phrase samples all at the same time. The samples are not looped; Jake triggers them every phrase."

Throw in bassist Jake Churton, and Donora felt complete as a trio. "Jake C. is like a bass player and lead guitar player all in one," she says. "He comes up with hooky bass lines that take the place of what a 'lead' guitar player would play. We really enjoy playing as a three-piece."

Brothers and sisters can be best friends or fight like crazy. So, how is the working relationship between Jake H. and Casey?

"It's nice being blood-related to the person you're writing songs with," she says. "You can tell them that you don't like their new song, and you can get annoyed or mad at each other. But at the end of the day, you still have to be brother and sister."