HOW did you see in the New Year then? I’m not sure what it says about me (nothing good, I imagine) that I spent it listening to a programme in which Radio 4 continuity announcers talked about their trade.

But First, This, as the programme was called, started at 11pm on Hogmanay on Radio 4 and finished at the Bells and was a slightly self-indulgent yet enjoyable programme which took you behind the scenes at Radio 4.

It was a particular delight for radio nerds. More or Less presenter Tim Harford turned up at one point with some numbers. There are 403 programmes on Radio 4 in a typical week, he revealed (though that includes the odd repeat) and if you listen all week you will hear the pips 123 times.

“Kissing the pips,” we then learned, is what continuity announcers say when they don’t quite time their words well enough.

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There are three continuity announcer shifts on a typical day, with six announcers on hand; three reading the news, three “in con,” as they call it. They keep the station going, in other words, through nearly 20 hours of broadcasting every day.

Ending, of course, with the Shipping Forecast. It was when the announcers started discussing the latter that the programme took flight and just for a moment or two you were reminded that radio is a form of continuity, a way we mark out our lives; a medium that offers listeners a sense of connection.

“This daily bit of routine broadcasting, it just somehow defines us as an island nation,” suggested Chris Aldridge.

“Its utility, I know, has declined over the years but its value as a late-night piece of poetry is just unparalleled,” added Viji Alles who particularly loves reading out “Ardnamurchan Point”.

And then announcer Jane Steel told a story that took us far beyond any sense of chummy reminiscence. A story about “a very dear friend of mine” who loved listening to Radio 4.

“Several years ago now,” she began, “I had a call from her daughter who said that her mother was in hospital and she was dying and that they wondered if I could possibly come in to help her let go, to help her feel peaceful.

“It was about two o’clock in the morning. The Shipping Forecast had actually already gone out, of course, because it goes out just before one o’clock. But I printed it off and I went into a tiny room where my friend was in the bed dying, and her daughter and her brother were there.

“And I just sat down and I read the Shipping Forecast. In the beginning I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it. But once you get into it you are carried along by the rhythms of it. And it was so quiet … And there was just the sound of my friend in the bed breathing. And when I finished we didn’t speak. I said, ‘That’s the end of the Shipping Bulletin.’ And I got up and I hugged them and I left and the next morning when I woke up I heard that she had died.”

Around the country a nation of Radio 4 lovers were holding their breath at that point, I imagine. I certainly was.

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From mortality to Madonna. On New Year’s Day Radio 2 gave the schedule over to the Material Girl for five hours. Michelle Visage declared the singer was “My Queen” in a typically declarative, over-the-top celebration of her Madgeness at teatime, but the main feature was a three-hour countdown of her greatest songs as voted for by listeners.

“We’ve had more votes for this than any other chart we’ve done,” revealed Scott Mills, presenter of Your Ultimate Madonna Song.

If Visage was excessive Mills was a bit bland to be honest. Never mind. Because, as you would expect, this was really just an excuse to play a lot of Madonna hits.

And if you worry about a voting public who could choose Boris Johnson as a Prime Minister then the fact that the Radio 2 listeners chose Like a Prayer - one of the greatest pop singles ever - as their number one almost has me optimistic for the next General Election.

Listen Out For: Things Fall Apart, Radio 4, Tuesday, 9am

Jon Ronson returns with a new series in which he investigates the mysterious death of 32 black sex workers in Miami in the 1980s and how it led to a new mental health diagnosis.