Car Talk

'Car Talk's' Tom Magliozzi has died, NPR reports

Tom Magliozzi, who along with his brother delivered insights on automobiles through a blizzard of Boston-accented quips, putdowns and laughter on NPR’s “Car Talk” program, has died. He was 77.

He died today of complications from Alzheimer’s disease, NPR said.

Magliozzi and his younger brother, Ray, called themselves “Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers” on “Car Talk,” which aired weekly on NPR from 1987 until their retirement in 2012. The show has been heard in re-runs on NPR member stations since then. The "Car Talk" column appears in Saturday editions of The Buffalo News.

Both brothers graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, before going into the car-repair business, according to NPR. They had grown up in East Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The brothers opened Hackers Heaven, a do-it-yourself repair shop, in the early 1970s, then a more traditional repair shop called the Good News Garage.
Radio found Magliozzi when WBUR, Boston’s NPR station, put him on a panel of car mechanics for a talk show. The next week, he brought his brother.

In 2012, when the brothers stopped doing new episodes, the Associated Press reported “Car Talk” was NPR’s most popular program.

“We’ve managed to avoid getting thrown off NPR for 25 years, giving tens of thousands of wrong answers and had a hell of a time every week talking to callers,” Magliozzi said, according to AP. “The stuff in our archives still makes us laugh. So we figured, why keep slaving over a hot microphone?”

Today, Ray Magliozzi, Tom's brother and the other half of Click and Clack, shared the news of his brother's death in a post at CarTalk.com in a manner familiar to Car Talk fans:

“It’s with great sadness that I have to report to you guys the passing of your longtime radio companion and my older brother, Tom, who died this week from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. We can be happy that he lived the life he wanted to live; goofing off a lot, talking to you guys every week, and primarily, laughing his [butt] off.

“Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the guest book, which we will share with Tom’s family and friends, and all of our listeners. In lieu of flowers, or rotten fish, I know my brother would prefer that folks make a donation to their favorite public radio station in his memory.”

“Many thanks,

“Ray Magliozzi.”

In a letter addressed to the NPR staff today, "Car Talk" executive producer Doug Berman said Ray Magliozzi "will share the news with listeners and remember some of Tom’s most spectacular moments on air" in a special version of the show that will air this weekend.

Source