I’m bummed out that long-running (and most popular) NPR program CarTalk is ending original broadcasts in the fall.

‘Car Talk’ Guys Are Retiring, But Their Best Stuff Will Be Rebroadcast – NPR

June 8, 2012; Our Fair City – Tom and Ray Magliozzi, aka Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers, the comedian mechanics who host NPR’s Car Talk, will tell their listeners this afternoon that as of this fall, they’ll no longer record new programs. But their weekly call-in series will continue to be distributed by NPR drawing on material from their 25 years of show archives.

“My brother has always been ‘work-averse,’ ” says Ray, 63. “Now, apparently, even the one hour a week is killing him!”

“It’s brutal!” adds Tom, 74.

Time to Get Even Lazier – Staff Blog, CarTalk

I wonder how long it would have taken listeners to notice that old episodes were airing again.

The *real* story is NPR simply can’t handle any more letters from people complaining about “those Trotskyists on CarTalk.” Or at least, that’s how Bob Garfield of On the Media referred to them few weeks ago at the Bart Richards Award. I’m still trying to get video or a transcript.