'Car Talk' Ending New Episodes of Its Dad-Soothing Radio Program in September

Car Talk is such a dad show, so hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi could have picked a more sensitive time to announce they're going to end it than shortly before Father's Day.

Car Talk is such a dad show, so hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi could have picked a more sensitive time to announce they're going to end it than shortly before Father's Day. But they didn't. The Tappet brothers said on Friday they would stop making new shows for Boston's WBUR (which are then syndicated to public radio stations across the U.S.) once the show reaches its 25th anniversary as a nationwide institution at the end of September. It's been on in Boston for 35 years, since 1977.*

In their Friday blog post, headlined "Time to Get Even Lazier," they pointed out we'll always have repeats: "The good news is that, despite our general incompetence, we actually remembered to hit the 'record' button every week for the last 25 years.  So we have more than 1,200 programs we’re going to dig into starting this fall, and the series will continue." That is not good news, you guys! Some of us have had Car Talk on, at least in the background, most Saturdays since we can remember, so going back to the archives will be, well, pretty familiar. But 1,200 shows is sure a lot, and it makes one realize that when they say at the end of the program, "you've wasted another hour with Car Talk," they're collectively now referring to about 1.6 months of many people's lives. We'll miss you, Click and Clack.

*Note: This post has been updated to include the years the show broadcast only on WBUR