海角大神

Sadly, all things come to an end.

聽For the past 35 years, two guys have put on a radio show that you could call when the engine of your 鈥�93 Ford Taurus made an odd sound while idling. They would even imitate it for you, on-air: 鈥淢MMMMmmmmMMMMMmmm.鈥�

To fix it, they might explain how to find the idle air control under the hood and clean it; or they might tell you to whack that control valve with the heel of your shoe 鈥� or maybe to try the shoe first, then cleaning the part if the whack didn鈥檛 work.

But after years of dispensing mechanical advice and wisecracks, not necessarily in that order, Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, Tom and Ray Magliozzi, are shutting the doors of their radio garage. This fall, as their 25th anniversary at NPR approaches, they will stop recording new episodes of "Car Talk," their comedic Saturday morning auto advice show.

聽It鈥檚 not a lack of popularity that sparked the decision. They started broadcasting on Boston's WBUR in 1977 after the station invited them to do a talk show about car mechanics, and it was 10 years before NPR picked them up. Now they are heard on 660 stations by about 3.3 million weekly listeners, some of whom call in for advice when they have mechanical difficulties. But, they鈥檝e 鈥渄ecided that it鈥檚 time to stop and smell the cappuccino.鈥�

聽鈥淭his is a sad day at public radio,鈥� says Robert Thompson, founder of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. 鈥淚t didn鈥檛 matter if you knew a single thing about automobiles, if you cared a single thing about automobiles. It was a comedy program of the first order.鈥�

聽The twitterverse agrees. Thousands of lamenting tweets have been sent since the brothers Magliozzi made their Friday announcement.聽

聽鈥淣o more Car Talk? Now how am I supposed to pretend I am a real man on Saturday mornings?鈥� asks @GeorgeRidgemont.聽

聽For fans, there was an appeal in the way they balanced the apparent dissonance between highbrow radio and comedy, says Professor Thompson. 鈥淭hey did seem to know their way around the underside of an automobile hood,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut they could articulate it in a way that it was as if when you go in to get your car fixed, No毛l Coward or Cole Porter came and explained what鈥檚 wrong with your car.鈥�

聽Mostly, they seemed to enjoy having a good time. 鈥淢y brother has always said, 鈥楧on鈥檛 be afraid of work. Make work afraid of you.鈥� And he鈥檚 done it. Work has successfully avoided him all his life,鈥� said Ray in their announcement.

But it鈥檚 not over yet. There鈥檚 still time to catch the pair鈥檚 mix of quirky humor and advice. They will continue to record new episodes until October, and hours of old shows are available as podcasts. After that, the "Car Talk" production team will remix the best material from more than 1,200 recorded programs into a new Saturday morning broadcast.

鈥淭hanks to all for the nice comments, but this isn't a wake! We won't be taping new shows, but we will still be polluting the airwaves!鈥� says the official "Car Talk" Twitter feed.