How Car Talk Selects its Callers
The NPR program Car Talk with Tom and Ray Magliozzi, aka Click and Clack, is the most popular car show on the radio. Ever wonder how you get through to talk about your car? It is not a matter of just calling 1-888-227-8255 and waiting to get connected to hosts according to a Wall Street Journal article in its February 18, 2009, edition.
About 10,000 people call in to Car Talk's answering machines every day. Some 1,000 callers manage to leave messages. Interns screen the messages and a producer makes follow-up calls to about 25 persons. The producer looks for a dozen articulate folks with a sense of humor and an interesting, current car problem that is straight forward enough to be discussed on the air. They also look for diverse "voices," (urban, rural, young, old, male, female) and an assortment of issues.
Contrary to some rumors, the brother do not have advance information on the callers or their car problems. The Car Talk website is www.cartalk.com.
