98 Jetta radio problem

I have a strange problem that seems to occur on hot humid days when I have my air conditioning working. After about an hour or two drive the radio shuts off. It won't turn on again until the car has sat for several hours without any air operating. When I turn it on at that point it has gone into safe mode and needs reset. The problem suggests a shorting out due to excess condensation from the air conditioning. I was wondering if anyone had experienced similar, and more importantly if any one new of a fix, say from VW.

It seems pretty obvious that your ac unit is leaking somewhere into your radio connection.

If the radio is going into safe mode then is is losing either it's power or ground connection, not shorting. I suspect a bad connection at the fuse block or a pinched wire that is loosing contact, both can be very tough to find, but since it dies predictably you should be able to track it down with a simple multimeter or possibly even a test light.

How do you reset the radio when it goes into safe mode? My radio did that when I replaced my battery.

Do you have the operator's manual with the code?