'Car Talk' radio show: Magliozzi brothers calling it quits
'Car Talk' will continue in reruns and as print column. But after 25 years of puzzles, puns, and other antics, 'Car Talk' will end in September.
Undated handout photo courtesy of Car Talk shows brothers Tom (R) and Ray Magliozzi, who are ending their 25-year radio show in September.
Richard Howard/Car Talk/Handout/Reuters
It's the end of an era at National Public Radio, and for car buffs everywhere that dedicated a few hours every weekend to listening to Tom and Ray Magliozzi, better known as Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers.
The Magliozzis, who've been recording new Click and Clack shows for 25 years, announced on their radio show that this season marks the end of new broadcasts.
Tom, who turns 75 this month, is deemed responsible in a blog post on the duo's website, titled "Work-Averse Brother Decides that Even One Hour a Week Is Too Much"--though brother Ray admits it may be time to "stop and smell the cappuccino" after more than 1,200 recorded shows over the course of a quarter-century.
Car Talk started as a local Boston-area radio show in the 1970s, and was picked up by NPR in the 1980s. Callers have real questions about car repairs and maintenance, of course--but are subject to the brothers' comedy bits, puns, and multiple diversions and trips down memory lane as they wend their way toward a diagnosis of the problem.
The show's following attracts more than four million listeners each week, across more than 350 radio stations and the SiriusXM satellite radio network.
The Magliozzis will stop production of new radio shows in September of this year. Their print column will continue, and old radio shows will be reworked into new episodes.
Could they come back? A reunion's unlikely, the brothers say, but anything's possible.
"Right?" asks Ray?
"Absolutely not," says Tom. "My brother can go chase himself. I’m done."
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