Tom Magliozzi. Photo courtesy Car Talk.
One of the pair of brothers who made talking about automotive woes so entertaining, Tom Magliozzi, co-host of the longstanding National Public Radio favorite Car Talk, died yesterday due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease. Tom was 77.
The brothers, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, were among NPR’s most durably popular radio hosts, having co-founded Car Talk as Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, at NPR affiliate WBUR in Boston. The call-in program, punctuated by long, humorous interplays between Ray and Tom, covered ground about automotive problems with unforced good humor. The brothers – Ray was younger than Tom by 12 years – were both fanatical car enthusiasts. Both received degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Tom went to work as an engineer. Later, he was involved in a near-fatal accident with a truck and decided to change his course in life.
Tom took two years off, found a wife, earned a doctoral degree in marketing and then decided to open an auto repair shop near Harvard Square with his brother. This became the famed Good News Garage, so familiar to the Car Talk audience. On the air, the brothers would banter incessantly as they diagnosed odd noises and vehicular behaviors that their callers reported. The program began almost inadvertently, when WBUR was attempting to put together a panel of mechanics for a call-in show, and the talent of the Magliozzi brothers shone through instantly.
Tom (left) and Ray Magliozzi. Photo courtesy Car Talk.
Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car editor David LaChance had personal encounters with the brothers, having worked on the program’s website from 1999 through 2000. He described Tom as “exactly the same person as you heard on the radio. There was no difference between the real person and the radio character. You only had to listen to the radio for a few minutes to know he had an excellent sense of humor. They gave each other a lot of ribbing on the air, which doesn’t happen unless you’re genuinely affectionate for the other person. They weren’t interested in celebrity; they just wanted to live the lives they did.
“I’m deeply sorry to learn of Tom’s passing, and I extend condolences to the entire Magliozzi family, and to the entire Car Talk family,” Dave said.
The brothers ended live recording of Car Talk in 2012. As a testament to the Magliozzi brothers’ huge following, it remains one of NPR’s top-rated broadcasts, even though it’s now relegated to reruns of previously recorded episodes.
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