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Radio Free Montone: 2015 In Review

By John Montone, 1010 WINS

From the big freeze to a balmy Christmas.  Trump.  The Pope.  American Pharoah. The Mets.  And desnudas.  2015 is almost a wrap.

After six weeks of telling 1010 WINS listeners almost every morning just how COLD it was, I strolled out onto a frozen solid Barnegat Bay.  The ice cracked and I went under.  Since I'm still around to talk about it, let's move on.  I wore my favorite summer shorts and my newest Hawaiian shirt on the day we trimmed our Christmas tree.  Craaaaaaazy weather.

In February six people were killed when a Metro North train crashed into a car sitting on the tracks in Valhalla and in March a gas line explosion leveled three buildings in the East Village.  Two bodies were pulled from the massive pile of debris.  Two members of the NYPD made the ultimate sacrifice in 2015, officers Brian Moore and Randolph Holder.  Both cops were killed by career criminals carrying guns.  Reporting on Moore's murder I recall saying, "He was just a kid, 25."

A couple of cold-blooded killers escaped an "escape-proof" maximum security prison in upstate Dannemora.  David Sweat and Richard Matt got an assist from a frisky prison employee.  But she got cold feet and left them stranded rather than providing a get-away.  Police pumped Matt full of bullets leaving him dead and brought Sweat back with a few wounds of his own.

When Donald Trump began tweeting out that he just might run for President, I hit the corner of Hudson and Houston in the West Village, where 24 of 25 people I asked either laughed, called Trump names not suitable for over-the-air radio or shook their heads and walked away.  And yet, the polls say maybe my poll missed something.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that gay men and women do indeed have a constitutionally-protected right to marry.  The psychopaths of ISIS committed mass murder in Paris and a man and his wife having also embraced radical Islam mowed down 14 innocents in San Bernadino.  Both attacks reminded New Yorkers in the words of Police Commissioner Bratton, "That (NYC) is the most likely target," for an ISIS massacre, but that we also have the best anti-terror force in the world.

After a few recent near misses we got a Triple Crown winner at Belmont Park on a June afternoon.  No horse came close to American Pharoah. And the Mets, yes the Mets gave us October and now November baseball.  Knocking out the Nationals, Dodgers and Cubs on their way to the first World Series ever at CitiField.  It did not end well.

The homeless are again a common sight on the streets of our town.  Some talked to me and told a tale I've heard before, shelters are too dangerous.  Some also admitted using the streets and sidewalks as a toilet bowl.

Times Square got some new characters. Joining the costumed super heroes and Disney favorites who have been shaking down tourists for a while now are the desnudas, well endowed women topless with painted the stars and stripes hiding their charms.

And Pope Francis came to town in September.  The faithful swooned as the popular Pontiff rode through Central Park in the Popemobile.  My favorite line came from a hard hat who when I asked him how he would get to work with the President, the Pope and all those U.N. ambassadors passing through, prompting police to close streets and create frozen zones said, "I'll take my wave runner down the East River and dock it at 34th Street and walk from there."

2015 was 1010 WINS 50th year covering the city and its suburbs, the country and the world.  I could not be prouder to say...

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