Are the last 2 weeks reruns?
Most of the re-runs are done during the summer.
They usually make an announce that the show is a encore presentation at the beginning of the show.
The shows that are run during the “beg-a-thons” (such as this past Saturday) are almost always a compilation of calls from previous shows, but it is never stated that the “beg-a-thon” progams are re-runs.
I distinctly remember the Daniel Pinkwater call and the letter Tommy read at the beginning of the show (the one about mechanics being the second least trusted profession). Tommy references that letter during the first three calls, so those calls are all reruns. Later in the show, a woman calls with a 2005 model year car with only 10,000 miles on it. Not impossible, but unlikely for a four-year-old car. Tom and Ray act like there’s nothing special about the year or the miles. I also know the last two puzzlers (the quanset hut and the couple shopping for a used car) are reruns. Both are in the puzzler archives.
I get the podcast version of the show, and I’m beginning to wonder if it’s different from the broadcast version. Maybe it’s just the podcast version that’s a rerun?
It’s not just the podcast – the broadcast shows (from KUOW Seattle, at least) ar exactly as described in the other posts. I’ve emailed the show inquiring about the absence of an “encore” indication, but have received no response.
What was curious, I thought, was when I used the CarTalk.com search feature to find the unforgettable quonset hut episode in their archives, it’s original air date appeared to have been obfuscated. I had to get into Google’s archives to find useful links.
Besides which: when they’ve run re-runs in the past, the Puzzler has “gone on vacation”. The encore shows (afaik) never had the contemporary puzzlers included.
I hope it’s just due to beg-a-thon season, but I’m starting to be concerned that something else might be going on. (But of course, I’ve no real info whatsoever.)
I emailed about this today, and got this in reply:
"We are on a temporary production hiatus, and while Tom and Ray are away, we are re-airing some of our favorite shows from past weeks. We’re sorry you were confused by the lack of identification of them as older shows. We hope you enjoyed them anyway!
Best,
Doug Mayer
Car Talk"
I haven’t been confused, just worried that an unusually long string of older-than-usual reruns, at the wrong time of year and without the usual editing, meant something might be ill or something.
Of course, it could also be that NPR is low on money and will order new episodes when they can pay for them.