Do people REALLY call in?

Maintenance/Repairs
1

The Brothers only take 3 or 4 calls during the course of each “show”, thousands must try to call in…Is this program completely scripted, the “calls”, the “answers” the whole thing scripted by professional (aspiring) writers?

2

That info is available in the Q&A section on there website http://www.cartalk.com/content/faq/faq-straight.html

3

Hi Caddyman,

I would encourage you to call in a question. Try at about 1:00 AM like I did. I left a message with the recording. I would like to think it was because of my bubbly personality that I was chosen to speak to the guys. I really think it was because of the fact that my truck is so old that I deserved to be embarrased around the world via the radio! The program director called me, and that would be Louie Cronin. She coordinated a time that I would be available and told me to wait by the phone!!! I got to speak to Ray and Tommy. What a thrill, and their diagnosis was right! I am delighted to think that someone would think I was an aspiring or professional writer. Sadly I am just a really frugal person who wants to get every last once of use out of my 1972 Chevy pick up truck.

Seriously I believe the beauty of the show is the authenticity and humor of the brothers and of the callers.

Erin

4

I tried to post this thread under the new heading “The Show” (click on topic index) I don’t know why it turned up here…Still a few bugs in the new format I guess…

Call in at 1am and leave a message and then wait by the phone?? I’m not that desperate to here myself on the air…This procedure allows the Brothers to edit the thousands of calls and then carefully choose the the ones selected for “The Show”. That’s called “Stage Management”. To listeners, it sounds spontaneous, but it’s been scripted…

5

Years ago I knew a buddy of Tom and Ray. He explained to me they get thousands of calls. When determining whom they call back, they try to maintain diversity with the problem type, the caller type, and the caller’s location.

6

Yup, just don’t try to call in during the show. It’s not exactly what you’d call “live”. They have to waste just the right amount of time on stump-the-chumps and the worthless puzzler.