Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

NPR's Click and Clack calling it quits on Car Talk this fall

NPR announced today that Car Talk, its beloved radio call-in show, will cease recording new episodes in the fall. Brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi are retiring from the show, and while NPR will continue broadcasting "new" Car Talk episodes, they will be created from archived material. NPR says Tom, 74, and Ray, 63, will continue to write a weekly column and post to their website and Facebook.

Eric Nuzum, Vice President for NPR Programming, said in a statement, "We're certainly disappointed that they're not going to do this forever."

As we all are. It's hard to believe that there was a time before Car Talk. The show has been on the air for 35 years, 25 of them nationally distributed on NPR affiliates. For this 39-year-old writer, its appearance on my local public radio station perfectly coincided with that point in adolescence when cars became an obsession. In that pre-Internet era, Car Talk was about the only place outside of an actual mechanic's garage that a newly minted auto enthusiast could hear people talking about wrenching and gearhead stuff.

I have not listened to every show since that time, but I have never tired of the guessing game I play when each caller dials in with car trouble. Of course, as the years went on, the brothers spent less time talking about auto mechanics and more on humor and the relationships of their callers, but at its core, Car Talk was always focused on cars and the love/hate relationships they inspire.

The brothers' differential diagnosis was especially intriguing to me early in the show's run, as I probably learned half of what I know about auto repair by listening. That aspect of the show also provided my wife with one of her best opportunities to pull one over on me. Unbeknownst to me, she had listened to an earlier broadcast of the show on a different NPR affiliate than the one that I normally tune in to. So when I began debating with myself out loud about what might be wrong with the first caller's vehicle, she hinted at a solution that hadn't occurred to me, one that the brothers arrived at a few minutes later. Then she did it again, and again, and I became flabbergasted at how my wife – who had never so much as changed her own oil – could have gleaned so much automotive knowledge. When I pressed her, she explained, laughing at my gullibility.

Click and Clack, enjoy your retirement – you will both be dearly missed.

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/06/08/c...alk-this-fall/

UDel

I can't believe those guys are going to be no longer doing new shows after September. I used to hear people talk about "Car Talk" or "Click and Clack" since I was young and occasionally heard them on the radio off and on when I was growing up. My dad got me into listening to Car Talk regularly the past few years, they have funny likable personalities and you normally learn a thing or two about cars you never knew after listening to them.

If anyone has not listened to them you should try to listen to them before they retire though it says they will still play repeats, they are on NPR on Saturday/Sunday mornings and they also are on youtube and have a podcast I believe. A little piece of Americana will be disappearing when they leave. My dad visited where they broadcast from in Boston a few times.

http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoram...161839883.html

ArmyofOne

Awww that sucks. I listen to them on Sirius satellite radio all the time

O. L. T.

iTrader: (17)

The only fortunate part of never listening to the radio is that I won't have to miss this show since I never heard it, but I do love a good car show so I might listen to the archives a bit.

mmarshall

They are fun and enjoyable to listen to (I like them myself). But, as serious automotive commentators, they are somewhat like Jeremy Clarkson.......they stick in a lot of humor, personal barbs at each other, and tend to over-simplify automotive subjects that are often quite complex in nature.