Tom Magliozzi, one of public radio’s most popular personalities, died on Monday of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 77 years old.
Tom and his brother, Ray, became famous as “Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers” on the weekly NPR show Car Talk. They bantered, told jokes, laughed and sometimes even gave pretty good advice to listeners who called in with their car troubles.
If there was one thing that defined Tom Magliozzi, it was his laugh. It was loud, it was constant, it was infectious.
The “Tappet Brothers” were one of the best and most humorous duos on radio. You learned all sorts of things about cars while laughing your head off. I will miss him and his show, just like I miss Richard Gladwell of “With Heart and Voice,” another public radio classic.
I just loved his laugh. It didn’t matter what I was doing or where I was, when I turned on the radio and heard his laugh I knew who it was and my world was brightened.
Best show ever. I still remember the one about the lady who was bothered by the engine temperature light on her father’s car and put a piece of tape over it. They then called her father and made her fess up!
May the Lord bless you and keep you Tom.
The one I remember is the guy who accidentally left an uncooked turkey in his car and went on a trip for a couple of months. He was asking how to get the smell out. That was good for about 20 minutes of discussion.
And then there was the guy who was refusing to take their advice about how to fix a shifting problem and was just generally being a jerk. Finally, one of the brothers said “here, I’ll tell you what to do. Take your car out on the road and get it up to around 30 miles an hour. And then just slam the shifter into reverse. I can assure you you won’t have to worry about problems with that transmission ever again.”
They reminded a little of Bob and Ray. 🙂
If you were driving somewhere and found them on the radio, your face brightened right away. You knew you were in for x minutes of enjoyment. And you just hoped you hadn’t caught the tail end of their program.
The remarkable thing to me was an element of their show that is true for excellent writing too: They could take a subject that many might find boring and reel in their audience. Their auto tour was a tour de force.
The time did pass when they were on the air! Who can forget how they would laugh at the mere mention of certain car models of yesteryear.
And the copious digs at Tom’s Dodge Dart..