Author: DOuG pRATt

Click and Clack, “National Treasures”

As a member of WBUR in Boston, where Car Talk is produced, I received this message from the manager of the station, regarding the end of the show:

We all knew this day would come but it is still not easy to announce a milestone on the highway of life. Tom and Ray Magliozzi, better known as “Click and Clack,” will end new recordings of Car Talk in October, after 35 years of continuous production at WBUR.

On behalf of everyone at WBUR which has proudly been the home of Car Talk, I want to express my gratitude to Tom and Ray and Doug Berman and his whole team. Their extraordinary work and endless hours of wit and wisdom and entertainment have delighted audiences across the country and the world. As most of you know, Car Talk began as a little experiment on WBUR and reached national distribution when Susan Stamberg heard about it and put a regular segment on Weekend Edition. The rest is history. Special credit goes to Doug Berman, without whom Car Talk would never have reached its levels of success or been sustainable for all these years.

Tom and Ray are a national treasure. They have a special place in the history of public radio. They taught us all about the broadest possibilities of providing wonderful entertainment that is funny, smart, self-deprecating and surprisingly wise. Because of their work, we have been able to broaden our perspectives on how to serve our communities of listeners like you with creativity, intelligence and warmth. How lucky we have been to have them on our air for all these years!

We’re pleased that Car Talk will continue to be produced from its archival material. Doug assures me that there is years’ worth of material that has yet to be aired.

We hope you’ll help us honor this legacy by continuing to tune in as you always have.

On behalf of everyone here at WBUR, I hope you’ll join me in expressing our gratitude for Tom and Ray.

Sincerely,

Charlie Kravetz
General Manager

It should be noted that a previous manager of WBUR, Jane Christo, got NPR to syndicate Car Talk. When Christo was later forced out of the station, it was reported that she regretted letting the Magliozzi brothers own the show.

The Tappet Brothers close up shop

What the heck is going on with Boston radio? Steve LeVeille retired today and now the Car Talk guys, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, have announced that they’re quitting. I’ve been listening to their on-air antics for more than 20 years. Cartoonist Jimmy “Arlo & Janis” Johnson is a fan of theirs, and some years back he even wrote ‘Click and Clack’ into the strip.

The “other” June 6

Denro points out that when the Beatles first walked into the EMI recording studios at Abbey Road, it was the 18th anniversary of another noteworthy date — the Allied Invasion of Europe or, as it’s more commonly called, D-Day. He says…

If you listen to the start of the news reports, they actually say that it may be a hoax by the Germans, as there was no confirmation from Allied Forces. Talk about tight security. The largest Invasion in history – and no leaks. The only reports were from the various German news agencies. Now, there’d be pictures taken by the French on their cellphones, tweets from the front lines, troops updating their facebook pages as they advance, satellite views of the ships at sea and the beaches…

Here are a few edited radio broadcasts from OTR.com, with those qualified announcements that the invasion had begun.

[audio:http://www.otr.com/ra/news/dday_kallen.mp3,http://www.otr.com/ra/news/1st_bulletin_CBS.mp3,http://www.otr.com/ra/news/1st_bulletin_NBC.mp3|titles=WOR radio announcement of D-Day,CBS Radio network announcement of D-Day, NBC Radio network announcement of D-Day]

A complete set of radio recordings from June 6, 1944 is at Archive.org.