Tom and Ray Magliozzi, hosts of the National Public Radio's popular "Car Talk" program that puts a comedic spin on often mundane topic of automotive repair, will retire in September after 35 years.
The brothers, who used the moniker broadcast name Click and Clack, the Tappett Brothers, have been taping the weekly show at WBUR, Boston's public radio affiliate, since 1977.
"My brother has always been 'work-averse," said Ray Magliozzi said in a release about Tom who will turn age 75 this year. "Now, apparently, even the one hour a week is killing him."
NPR will continue to broadcast the show with highlights from the more the 1,200 episode of the shows, with occasional updates from the Magliozzi brothers.
First broadcast only in Boston, "Car Talk" became nationally broadcast by NPR 10 years later. It is heard weekly by an audience estimated at more than four million listeners.
"To our fans, don’t be sad," said Ray Magliozzi. "We’ve managed to avoid getting thrown off NPR for 25 years, given out tens of thousands of wrong answers, generated lawsuit threats from innumerable car companies, and had a hell of a lot of fun talking to you guys"
Article Last Updated: June 8, 2012.
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A sports, travel and business journalist for more than 45 years, James has written the new car review column The Weekly Driver since 2004.
In addition to founding this site in 2004, James writes a Sunday automotive column for The San Jose Mercury and East Bay Times in Walnut Creek, Calif., and monthly auto review and wellness columns for Gulfshore Business, a magazine in Southwest Florida.
An author and contributor to many newspapers, magazines and online publications, co-hosted The Weekly Driver Podcast from 2017 to 2024.
