Click and Clack will be retiring at the end of the summer.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...a-click-clack-step-npr-show-article-1.1092260
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...a-click-clack-step-npr-show-article-1.1092260
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"Car Talk" Parks It After 25 Years
- Thread starter DToTheJ
- Start date
crainbebo said:
I thought "Stump The Chumps" WAS the "Best of Car Talk", or maybe that's what they should name the "Best Of" episodes...
Combine this with the possible retirement of Garrison Keilor, and you have a potential for significant audience losses for public radio stations. While the various program suppliers, including NPR, have worked hard to develop new shows and hosts, it's been a while since any have really taken hold. Perhaps Ira Glass is the newest of the hit show hosts. It's also a problem in commercial talk radio, where some stations are concerned about the retirement of syndicated talker Neal Boortz. Don Imus is also getting up in years. It's not that there aren't lots of great show hosts. Just none that have the credibility of the older hosts. When they retire, they can't be replaced. It further weakens the medium, and allows the audience to dissipate to the multitude of other audio platforms.
The lack of a solid "farm system" is a long-recognized problem in public radio. There have been some attempts to deal with that and some have been successful: the Public Radio Talent Quest ultimately created "Snap Judgment", which is rapidly becoming a hit show...it's very much like a mix of Radiolab and This American Life, and unsurprisingly, fans of those shows (who are many) tend to like SJ a lot, too. Also, Radiolab itself is pretty new and is very popular, although it's so production-intensive that I doubt it'll ever be a true "weekly" show for the entire year. The Moth is also pretty good, and WTF with Marc Maron is something of a sleeper hit - I've heard there's a lot of talk of trying to make that into a true weekly series instead of an occasional one.
TheBigA said:
Maybe this becomes the ultimate test of the NPR concept. The "cream of the crop" rose to prominence beginning 40 years ago and they have held the place together for all these years. This is like a corporation that has not set up a "line of succession" within the company. NPR had a bumper crop from near the beginning so they haven't continuously created (or made room for) talent through the years. Can they create an entire new crop all at once? Will it "hurt the brand" if it takes 10 or 12 years to fill all the vacancies... one at a time.
The second topic is: What kind of replacements are they going to look for? It would be a mistake to look for two people to be a never-quite-satisfying replacement for Click and Clack. But they could come up with two brothers to do Kitchen Recipes. Performance Today seems to continue with a replacement host. I guess that is a content concept more than a show built totally around a personality. Could a Rachel Maddow fill a void that will be left eventually by Terri Gross and Diane Rheem? Could Steve and Johnnie who recently retired from overnight on WGN do a once a week broadcast that would not duplicate Garrison Keilor, but could plug the hole in the genre gap.
If they were supposed to be retired by now, why is there a new season of The Puzzler?
They continue to joke about being fired, but there's no sign this show is actually ending.
And I wouldn't want it to.
If Garrison Keillor is leaving, I vote for reruns of his show with him. I only recently discovered it as it's on after "Car Talk" on Sunday ("Wait! Wait!" airs while I am in church, though sometimes I catch the tail end).
By the way, I actually listen on Saturday, but if I'm on my way home from the grocery store after it starts I change my radio, and it's still there on Sunday.
They continue to joke about being fired, but there's no sign this show is actually ending.
And I wouldn't want it to.
If Garrison Keillor is leaving, I vote for reruns of his show with him. I only recently discovered it as it's on after "Car Talk" on Sunday ("Wait! Wait!" airs while I am in church, though sometimes I catch the tail end).
By the way, I actually listen on Saturday, but if I'm on my way home from the grocery store after it starts I change my radio, and it's still there on Sunday.
vchimpanzee said:
Car Talk has been on repeats for nearly a year. Those puzzlers are old. Every once in awhile, they throw in a new segment on the show, but almost every single episode is all old material. They finally offically announced their retirement after fans on their Car Talk Forum started questioning what was going on and had been pointing out the repeats for months.
Well, I hadn't noticed. As long as I'm still enjoying it, who cares? I didn't listen to that much of that show until maybe a year ago.mwd711 said:
If the puzzlers are repeats, what happens if someone tries to respond? I am usually not listening when Tom says "Our Fair City" but it should somehow be noted that these are not new and no one's going to win anything.dyeingeye said:
Yeah, but the winner would no longer be announced.dyeingeye said:
I've never tried to call to see what would happen, but I'm guessing that's how people know what has happened.
But nothing sounds familiar. I had noticed that people seemed to be asking questions about cars that were really, really old.
dyeingeye said:
They don't. For awhile, forum regulars were predicting who the winners were going to be every week. They were always correct as it was the same winner as when the puzzler originally aired. Anyone sending in fish with correct answers is wasting their time.
Its sad Car Talk is ending this way. They've been fooling their listeners for a year. For the ones who realized it, its pretty frustrating. I fear that one of the brothers might be having health problems and that's why we've been treated to these constant repeats with no comments about the show ending from Tom & Ray except via a press release.
mwd711 said:
I was checking Car Talk's wikipedia page for news and found an article from the time of the announcement that discusses what they are doing with repeats. http://www.webcitation.org/68djZLtRU
Eight years of repeats?
TheBigA said:
There are only so many things that can wrong with a car, as there are only so many lessons to be learned on a
desert island with a small group of people.
The question is whether we've learned anything from the 25 years of their wisdom, or were they just a labor of love
and easy crutch for those who couldn't figure out their car problems?
No doubt they saved many dollars for those motivated to do their own work.
Tom Wells said:
I'm not so sure. It almost never sounded as if the various callers were mechanics themselves and the boys almost always had a menu of possible ailments from which to choose.
I loved their humor but took nothing from the show in the way of car education (other than the common sense to properly maintain it). The cars in question always tended to be significantly older than I owned and of dubious extraction. I mean....how many broken down Saab's can there possibly be? ;D
Newer cars lend themselves less and less toward repars or any issue the owner can address.
So it would figure that as years went by, the more motivated owners of older vehicles would become
the core audience and focus of discussion.
There are Saab fanantics, like anything else.... Probably every Saab fanatic listens to Car Talk.
So it would figure that as years went by, the more motivated owners of older vehicles would become
the core audience and focus of discussion.
There are Saab fanantics, like anything else.... Probably every Saab fanatic listens to Car Talk.
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