The McCarthys Step Out: A Police Safety Program

Some of WNYC's earliest radio drama came out of the police department safety bureau. When in the 1930s 30,000 people were falling victim to street and highway accidents each year, the story of a Midwestern family on a road trip from Cleveland to New York seemed the ideal vehicle for getting out the message of automobile safety. 

The McCarthys Step Out premiered on January 9, 1935, and followed a fictional family as they made their way through a succession of roadway mishaps –with warnings from police and safe driving tips stressed in each episode. At the start of the series' second year, the police department's monthly magazine, Spring 3100, reported on the show's success and its resulting sequels airing on both WNYC and WINS.

Profile of NYPD Safety Unit's radio troupe from the January 1936 publication Spring 3100 (page 7) (John Jay College of Criminal Justice/Internet Archive)