DETROIT -- Tom Magliozzi, the retired co-host of National Public Radio’s “Car Talk” show known for his contagious laugh and car-infused banter, died today, NPR said.
Magliozzi died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 77.
Magliozzi and his brother and co-host Ray Magliozzi launched “Car Talk” at NPR member station WBUR in Boston in 1977. Their show’s success earned them the name “Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers,” resembling the clicking and clacking of cars.
The pair broadcasted more than 1,200 episodes over 35 years, joking with listeners seeking everything from car advice to marriage counsel. The program has continued to air in re-runs following the pair's retirement two years ago.
“Tom really lived the life he wanted to live,” Ray Magliozzi said in an emailed announcement today. “He spent his time inventing zany theories, talking to you guys every week on the radio show, and primarily, laughing his butt off. Now there’s a life.”
Tom Magliozzi was born on June 28, 1937, in East Cambridge, Mass., where he grew up. He and Ray, though 12 years apart in age, studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology before going into the car and radio business, NPR said.
They started a do-it-yourself car repair shop called Hacker’s Haven in the 1970s. Later, they opened Good News Garage. They recorded “Car Talk” episodes out of a studio with a neon sign that said “Dewey, Cheatham & Howe,” the name of a fictional law firm featured on the show.
Joe Wiesenfelder, executive editor at Cars.com, met Magliozzi in the late 1990s, when Cars.com launched, and “Car Talk” and Cars.com initiated a partnership.
Car must go
When Magliozzi purchased a 1952 MG-TD, his wife told him that either one of his cars had to go, or she was going to go, Wiesenfelder said.
So, Magliozzi sold his 1979 Fiat Spider to Wiesenfelder.
“They had a pool betting on what city I’d break down in,” Wiesenfelder said.
Ray Magliozzi bet that Wiesenfelder would only make it to Lee, Mass., before the car gave out -- he was heading from Cambridge to Chicago.
Tom Magliozzi told Wiesenfelder he thought he could make it the whole way, but Wiesenfelder knew he was making opposing bets on the side. Wiesenfelder ended up making it the whole way and keeping the car for 11 years before auctioning it off through a vehicle donation program through “Car Talk.” The winning bidder bought the car for $4,567.89, with proceeds going to Wiesenfelder’s local Chicago NPR member station WBEZ.
Wiesenfelder said he and Magliozzi had lost touch since then. Magliozzi wasn’t one to keep in touch via email.
“He lived his own way,” Wiesenfelder said. “He was a guy who loved to sit in Harvard Square and sip a cappuccino.”
Wiesenfelder called Magliozzi a “pioneer” in automotive entertainment.
“[‘Car Talk’] wasn’t for car junkies -- it was for everyone,” Wiesenfelder said. “It was about Tom and Ray and their relationship and banter as much as it was about the topic.”
'Incredible piece of Americana'
Jamie Kitman, New York bureau chief for Automobile Magazine, wrote for the “Car Talk” website a year or two before the Magliozzis left the show.
“First and foremost, it was this incredible piece of Americana,” Kitman said. “But it was definitely left of center.”
