"Every weekend he goes swimming among the ice floes and grapefruit rinds in the surf at Coney Island; he is in fact, President of the Icebergs Athletic Club. He writes sentimental poetry. He used to be a tap dancer with a Primrose and Dockstader minstrel show, and at 48 is still able to make a lot of noise with his shoes. 'However,' he said today, 'I think my most important accomplishment is my Missing Persons human interest broadcast. I am a keen student of psychology, and I take these stories from the original files, stories of broken home ties, and broadcast them over WNYC, the municipal broadcasting station at 1 P.M. on Sundays. I write a poem about each case and finish up with that, and I feel the broadcast is an important police service.' "

Source: Joseph Mitchell writing in The New York World Telegram, May 9, 1936 about George L O'Connor, a detective with NYPD Missing Persons Bureau.

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As 2013 comes to a close and we are bombarded with retrospectives on the year just past hosted by a parade of Monday morning quarterbacks, let's take a listen to how WNYC approached it on New Year's Eve 1949 in A Man Without a City.

And, let us not forget New Year's Day 1939 in New York Advances.