I was expecting to listen to Car Talk today at noon. Instead I discovered another show in its spot! Went to the station website and found out it’s no longer on the line up.
Anybody else had this unpleasant experience?
“Best of Car Talk” is still listed for “Wisconsin Public Radio” saturdays at noon.
I didn’t get a chance to listen today though.
Yosemite
I enjoy this place but think there is a limited lifetime. I will miss it as much as mythbusters forum, any favorite haunts one could recommend?
Could be a trend, hard to say. In the SFO area Car Talk used to be broadcast twice per week, but now it is only aired once per week. Not sure why, as I see no indication of any decline in the show’s ratings. It’s true there’s been a significant ratings decline for the NPR station that broadcasts CarTalk, but that’s b/c of the bizarre decision to eliminate the two-hour listener call-in news and politics show “Talk of the Nation”, which was among the station’s best rated daily programs. Why that change was made, who knows?
In any event OP, no worries, you can always listen to the Car Talk podcast instead. A new one corresponding to the current week’s broadcast show is posted every Saturday by the good folks here, the Car Talk staff.
Correct, I listened to this week’s show on the website. I just miss listening to it on the radio on the weekend; I’ve been doing that a long time.
Pretty hard to find out here in the four corners too where most of the PBS programming is targeted to the native american population ( Native America Calling )
Well the stations have to pay for the shows and it seems than many of the PBS stations are having some financial difficulties. I know in Minnesota they have had some major force reductions trying to save money. Seems a little short sighted though running programs like the Splendid Table that can only interest a small market and dropping shows with a wider appeal. I know I would appreciate a little more balance in their programming as a public service instead of 90% bent left.
OTH the model of contributions and government money to fund the stations may just not work anymore as the world changes. People just aren’t as willing anymore to join in and become members of anything let alone a radio station. Club memberships everywhere are hurting. So maybe at some point its going to have to be selling to the mean old corporations instead of soliciting contributions from them.
The way WFAE Charlotte NC was talking they would never drop the show. And yet they still announced this morning that next week is the last week, just as it would have been during the fundraiser.
It would actually be easier to come to the site anytime I want than to try to be near the radio when I have to be.
The way you feel now is how I felt years ago when they started playing reruns. You can still listen to old reruns by listening to the podcasts they’re putting out.
KQED – the local San Francisco NPR station – it’s last Car Talk broadcast was two weekends ago. No need to worry though, new “Best of Car Talk” shows are still being posted each Saturday in mp3 forma, to the NPR podcast website. From cartalk.com, click “our show”, then “podcasts”. Good news, as of last Saturday the puzzler is finally off its summer holiday and is back to enjoy.
The replacement show here in SF area is called “The New Yorker Radio Hour”. It has some interesting content, but isn’t really what I want to be listening to on Saturday mornings. It’s more of an evening show for serious listening of a political bent. . Something a little more entertaining and cheerful would better for Saturday mornings.
I don’t really mean to mention it but on the way back from South Dakota last Saturday I was listening to the “Under the Hood” car talk program. It’s actually based out of Sioux Falls. Back in the 60’s it was a big junk yard I used to go to when I needed a part. At any rate, new generation, added car repairs and linked up with a media guy and they aren’t bad. More serious information than jokes so might want to give them a shot. They are carried by quite a few stations around the country or have a podcast. You can just google then to have a look. A lot better than Sam and Sam in Georgia selling their engine treatments.
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I’ve found the Car Doctor to be an informative show, more like Ray doing the show on his own. http://www.cardoctorshow.com/index.shtml
While we’re at it, can someone please bring back Gilligan’s Island? I miss that show too. 
You need to switch to an antenna so you can get the Decades channel for old shows like that. I have both cable and antenna and really the antenna is pretty good except I can’t get the news shows, and its free. One problem though is trying to find the schedule.
I’m not interested in an informative show. The brothers are all I want and if I can get the “Best of” each week online as I did from radio, I should be happy.
That might explain why a car talk show was popular on PBS. You have to admit that the PBS clientele is not exactly a high percentage of car folks. The Splendid Table was my favorite example of envisioning the listeners and how could the same group listen to Car Talk? I guess the answer wasn’t an interest in cars but rather entertainment. Nothing wrong with that but let’s be honest anyway.
I couldn’t find the RSS link to the mp3 podcast files for The Car Doctor, but I found them for the Under the Hood show, so I’ll give that one a try next time I load up my mp3 player. I’ve listened to various of these kinds of radio programs before, but I usually give them up once they start with the advertising of specific brands of products. I’m not interested in listening to paid-for product endorsements. The only other one I listen to besides Car Talk is a podcast out of Baton Rouge which doesn’t advertise products, only advertisements are for their car repair service.
I am of course interested in the car advice, but only from the guys.
@vchimpanzee The show stopped making new ones in 2012, Tom passed away in 2014 and even the Best of Car Talk has ended. Do you not realize that? As for car advice the podcasts are mostly for entertainment now.
I read here that “The Best of Car Talk” has not in fact ended. It is over on my station. Anyway, the “new” episodes, which are new to me since I had not listened to much more than the puzzlers for that many years before 2012, offer a lot of valuable information (for whatever era the advice was given, but probably still true now) if I pay enough attention. Mostly, though, the car advice is nothing more than entertainment because the problem being “solved” is entertaining.
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