Tom and Ray of Car Talk.

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Aug 5, 2017
Messages
731
Location
Nebraska
I recall as a youngster that my dad liked to listen to "Car Talk with Tom and Ray on NPR radio.This was about the late 80's 1988 or 89 when I first heard of them. At the time they were on every Saturday morning. As an adult I also listened to them off and on in the 90's and 2000's. Not sure when their program ended, but I still sometimes to their podcasts on Stitch or Slacker radio. I have found a very few other radio mechanic shows like "Mr.Mechanic" on 1110 KFAB and Bobby Likis car clinic" and the "Under the Hood Show", but all of them pale in comparison to Tom and Ray of Car Talk. Those 2 were the masters of combining automotive advice with a dose of humor. I do not own a tv and only listen to radio mostly with a bit of netflix on our computer sometimes. Any other automotive radio shows that you can recommend?? Anyone else miss listening to Tom and Ray of Car Talk??
 
Still miss them.

Program ended about five years ago because of Tom's Alzheimer's. Sadly, he died two years after.

I was lucky enough to be listening one morning when a guy named John called in about his "government vehicle" that would run rough, then smooth, and then, wouldn't start...
 
Last edited:
That was a great show. The last few years were pasted together repeats of previous shows but I still listened, even to the point where I knew the calls, like the classic solution offered by a Cajan mechanic to the Vermonter stuck in N.O. "You got mud chiggers in your feeyoo line"

I once visited a new dating interest in Belmont MA; the first thing we did was to head down to Harvard Sq so she could show me the Dewey, Cheetam + Howe Law Office.

The show is a woven thread through my life
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
I always loved reading their articles in the Sunday newspaper.


Click and Clack! It was the only reason that I read the Sunday paper, aside from the used car classified ads.

I still listen to the reruns on NPR. I think Saturdays at 10 AM
 
Last edited:
Old shows are posted each week as a podcast.

I get them. I still laugh. Occasionally, I hear one I don't recall hearing before.


Originally Posted By: BJD78
I recall as a youngster that my dad liked to listen to "Car Talk with Tom and Ray on NPR radio.This was about the late 80's 1988 or 89 when I first heard of them. At the time they were on every Saturday morning. As an adult I also listened to them off and on in the 90's and 2000's. Not sure when their program ended, but I still sometimes to their podcasts on Stitch or Slacker radio. I have found a very few other radio mechanic shows like "Mr.Mechanic" on 1110 KFAB and Bobby Likis car clinic" and the "Under the Hood Show", but all of them pale in comparison to Tom and Ray of Car Talk. Those 2 were the masters of combining automotive advice with a dose of humor. I do not own a tv and only listen to radio mostly with a bit of netflix on our computer sometimes. Any other automotive radio shows that you can recommend?? Anyone else miss listening to Tom and Ray of Car Talk??
 
They played that call as one of their "best of" episodes last fall when they were closing down the radio broadcast.

I think John sent them the $5 he owed the shop when he used their DIY garage bay.

Originally Posted By: Astro14
Still miss them.

Program ended about five years ago because of Tom's Alzheimer's. Sadly, he died two years after.

I was lucky enough to be listening one morning when a guy named John called in about his "government vehicle" that would run rough, then smooth, and then, wouldn't start...
 
They were on WBUR long before NPR took them nation wide. Cambridge guys who both went to MIT. Tom taught at MIT. Ray fixed cars. My son dunked Jennifer "Jiffy" Loeb with a well tossed bean bag at a fund raiser for WBUR. Back in the pre-interweb era, I bought a rear window for my jeep from Nissenbaum's Tom's favorite JY over on Columbia St
 
Last edited:
Their show is a perfect where a simple "like" or "dislike" doesn't cut it.

The show was ABSOLUTELY about their quipping, NOT about car repair per se.
I liked them enough but I thought they laughed too much.
I used to call them "The Two Drunken Parrots".

I get it. I know laughter is infectious. Think of Carol Burnett bits where everyone laughed. It was an invitation to join in!
Me? I need good material to laugh because I'm already a happy person.

Also, they weren't purely original or free from corporate involvement.
They flirted with mentioning flatulence repetitively....then they ceased it.
It's like the obligatory "guns are bad" episode of Star Trek.
Baseball broadcasters giggling over water saving urinals in new ballparks is kind of the same thing.
The big shots behind the scenes experiment with pushing envelopes or crafting political issues into their scripts all the time.
 
All of the other mechanic type radio shows( Mr. Mechanic, "Under the hood show" and "Bobby Likis" seem so boring by comparison to Tom and Ray.
 
My mother is not an automotive person...
but she LOVED "Click and Clack".

She always listened/read their shows/articles
 
Originally Posted By: andyd
They were on WBUR long before NPR took them nation wide. Cambridge guys who both went to MIT. Tom taught at MIT. Ray fixed cars. My son dunked Jennifer "Jiffy" Loeb with a well tossed bean bag at a fund raiser for WBUR. Back in the pre-interweb era, I bought a rear window for my jeep from Nissenbaum's Tom's favorite JY over on Columbia St

The Best of Car Talk is still on WBUR, Saturdays at 11AM.
 
I remember setting my stereo to tape it so I could listen throughout the week. They were entertaining!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top