Where to find her: Mid-days at Sunny 92.3, WDEF-FM.

About Sunny 92.3: “We don’t put you to sleep, and we don’t knock you out of your seat with hard guitar. Our focus, of course, is soft rock, and our goal is to offer our listeners good music, contests that are fun and easy to win, and the latest news and traffic in a professional, personable, and entertaining manner. If we accomplish that, we’ve done a good thing.”

How she views what she does: “I am company for our listeners. They’re going about their own lives every day, and my job is to put together a smooth and professional radio show that’s a background for their day. That’s my job, it’s what I do, and listeners don’t understand how big a part of my day they are. They’re as much a part of mine as my radio station is of theirs.”

On radio: “I’ve been addicted since I was 14. I always listened to WQXI in Atlanta, Top 40 Radio, and after my parents went to bed, I’d still be up searching the dial. I’d find stations in New Orleans and Fort Wayne, Ind., and Chicago, and I’d write to them, and they’d send me back letters saying ‘thank you for listening.’ It was so neat, and I still love radio after all this time. It amazes me to this day how I was a 14-year-old kid listening under headphones after her parents had gone to bed, and here I am, getting to do what I love.”

Her beginnings in radio: After studying communications at the University of Georgia, Ms. Sanders decided it was “time to move back home to Atlanta and go to school there,” enrolling at Georgia State University and landing a spot in its radio program. “College stations are such wonderful learning grounds. It was the late 70s, and punk was just coming in, so it was an interesting time.” Besides working at the station, she was working on the college newspaper, clerking at a record store, typesetting, and “going to college one class at a time. That was my life, and I loved every minute of it. I wouldn’t trade any of it. Any part of who I am, those were my formative years.”

How she came to Chattanooga: “I was working overnights at WSB in Atlanta, and a station owner drove through, heard me, and offered me a job, which was to come here to put on a rock and roll station in 1983. I loved the city right away. It’s a great place to live. We have mountains and lakes, and we’re two hours away from a big city, if you have to have that.” She enjoys going back to Atlanta on occasion, but “it’s not the Atlanta I grew up in. It’s so much bigger.”

Her family: Ms. Sanders and her husband recently became grandparents. “We are blessed to have mommy, daddy, and baby all living with us. With the family, a dog, and two cats, it’s a busy household.”

Her hobbies: “I’ve taken up jogging, and I would love to take up stained glass. I’m also a huge reader. I read any book I can get my hands on.” She’s partial to James Michener’s novels ( Chesapeake is her favorite), and also enjoys volunteering for local non-profit organizations. “We have to leave this world a little better than we found it.”

What she listens to: “Anything from the Allman Brothers to Celine Dion. I didn’t understand punk, and I don’t get rap. Other than that, I’m just addicted. I don’t have a CD player at home, though. I’m still all albums, so it’s The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Leon Russell, and Simon and Garfunkel when I’m in the mood for music at home.”

Her favorite song lyric: “We are but a moment’s sunlight fading in the grass,” from “Get Together,” a tune The Youngbloods made popular in the late 60s. “I love that line. It just says so much.”

The best concert she ever attended: “Bonnie Raitt. The lady kicks. She is just incredible.” Ms. Sanders also gave good reviews to shows by Chicago, Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash, but said the most disappointing concert she attended was an Allman Brothers show on the day after she graduated from high school in 1974. “Greg Allman passed out after three songs. I could never forgive him for that.”

If a restaurant offered a Patti Sanders special: “It would be a bean burrito with extra hot sauce, guacamole, and extra sour cream, with a bowl of peanut M&Ms on the side. I could live on those.”