@texases: That may or may not be true, depending on whether you own a 1982 Nissan or 1987 Blazer, or not. But using your own line of argument, saying the words “This is an encore broadcast of Car Talk. The original program aired on XXXX XX, XXXX,” would not affect its informational, nor its entertainment, value a bit. But it would help the listener put things in perspective, and enable him or her to better judge whether they want to spend the hour listening in, or not.
@MikeInNH, with all due respect, the fact that the show is entertainment does not make a compelling argument that presenting it as though is live is ethical. The show is nonfiction. If it were fiction, I would feel differently.
I think you two should boycott everything cartalk related in protest…
starting with this thread
If you’re listening to get up-to-date useful information…then you need to find another hobby. While the brothers are very well educated and many of their stuff is factual…it is NOT suppose to be a how-to-show like This-Old-House.
@MikeInNH, I couldn’t possibly agree more!
… and you’re also right that I should find a better hobby to fill the hour I used to spend listening to Car Talk. As a matter of fact, I’ve started downloading podcasts of other NPR shows to listen to, like This American Life, the TED Radio Hour, and Snap Judgement. The cool thing about downloading the podcasts is that if they play a rerun that week, the podcast title will have an “R” next to it so I don’t have to waste my time downloading and listening to it again. 
Quoting @texases “The original program aired on XXXX XX, XXXX,”\
I’m not sure they could do that. I THINK that each show is made up of segments from more than one earlier show. Why would they re-run a complete show if one or more segments was a dud? If you know otherwise, please tell us.
Then there are also some of the comments that they make, which are sometimes timely. They would not have made some of those statements 20 years ago.
I just want to keep this thread going…(kidding). I’ve also concluded that the “new” shows can be a mix of previous show segments.
hmmm … This is a tough one, philosophically and ethically speaking I mean. It’s not a tough one practically speaking, since Car Talk is provided to the listener free of charge and if you don’t like what’s being offered, nobody is forcing you to listen; i.e. a disappointed listener always has the “off” switch as a remedy.
But back to philosophically & ethically speaking, since Tom and Ray, during the show, they do give the phone number to phone the show, you could argue it is unfair to the listeners to not announce prior to the start that the show is a repeat. The argument would be that the listener phoning in would be wasting their time. And that waste of time could be avoided by an announcement. On the other hand, even when Car Talk wasn’t in repeats, the listener couldn’t phone in and expect be on the that day’s show. Unlike most radio talk shows, Car Talk was never a live call-in show. Even so, there is some merit to the “wasting-of-time argument” on a purely theoretical level I suppose.
To reach a conclusion to this dilemma, you’d have to know how many people actually phone in on a typical week, only to find the show is a repeat. Is there any data available?
@MG McAnick - that wasn’t me, I really have zero concerns about the fact the shows are reruns.
@MG McAnick: That was me, responding to texases.
Anyway, if it’s various segments pieced together, the date of original airing can be dispensed with. Just saying “This is an encore performance of Car Talk” would be sufficient to meet the ethical requirements. Whatever. Any disclosure would be better than the none that currently is provided. Today they talked about a 1978 Datsun and a 1979 VW. How about a 1932 Essex and 1954 Hudson? Perhaps the show has a future on the History Channel . . .
actually, the knowledge about old cars is more interesting and helpful to me
I was thinking the same thing, kind of scamish. The guys putting together the show are doing a good job creating a show for the time of the year. holidays, seasons etc , sounds like there still doing it.live. I to hear the repeated calls, I think, or maybe some that sound the same.
Where are the boys? Any one know?
Are they ok?
Tom on the beach in Hawaii smoking a few fatties a day?
Same as the late night talk shows ( Letterman and the Jimmys ) and i hate it !
Twenty years ago they used to preface the intro with ‘‘originally aired on xxx’’ but not any more.