We discovered pretty quickly that producing a national radio show is a lot of work! Shortly after going national, we decided we needed a staff. That way, our afternoon naps could continue uninterrupted and, when not napping, we could still pursue our CAFE study. (Don't confuse this with the government's Corporate Average Fuel Economy report. Ours is about latte and cappucino in the greater metropolitan Boston area.) So, in 1989, we founded Dewey, Cheatem and Howe.
In all seriousness, we've had lot of fun along the way.
In 1988, we appeared on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" with Jay Leno as the guest host. Turns out, Leno used to be a grease monkey, too — so maybe there is hope for us, after all. We had a great time, but after a few days on the LA freeways, it was nice to get back to Boston. At least here, you won't get shot for double parking.
In 1989 we launched a twice-weekly newspaper column, called "Click and Clack Talk Cars." Today, we're singlehandedly lowering the standards of more than 200 newspapers around the country. (Including, we kid you not, the Riyadh Times. So if you're ever in Saudi Arabia and your car breaks down ...) The column is a lot like the radio show, meaning we take questions and espouse all kinds of solutions — a small fraction of which may actually be correct.
A few years ago, we even wrote a book, which, after days of committee meetings, we decided to call "Car Talk."
We encourage you to buy several copies. We promise that all of the proceeds with go to our favorite charity, Save The Skeets.
In 1992, we won first place in some national radio award from a guy named Peabody. (Don't confuse him with that Mr. Peabody scientist dog in "Bullwinkle" like we did.) When we first got the call, we thought they said "autobody" award! We were pleased enough about that. As it turned out, this Peabody award is pretty haughty stuff. Berman tells us it's the broadcasting equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize! People like Daniel Schorr, Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby also won that year.
Little did we know, this Peabody character had been dead for years! Still, we had a great time — until they caught us stealing the silverware after the ceremony. (We told Dougie that the serving utensils were going to stick out of his jacket pockets!) We did get one hell of a trophy. In fact, the only way we could fit it into the Tom's Dart for the trip home was to bust the thing into three pieces, but that's a story for another time, after the statute of limitations has expired.
Over the years, we've been on "The David Letterman Show," "CBS Evening News," and "The Today Show," — all of which we found to be a colossal pain in the butt. Of course, we're still waiting for the big time — we haven't gotten a call yet from Regis and Kelly. But, maybe we'll hit the big time someday. We can always keep hoping.
Recently, you may have even seen us on "60 Minutes."
Of course, we had been expecting them to call for years. When they got to Boston, though, they must have lost their list of tough questions about "Save The Skeets," and we actually had a pretty good time with them.
So, that's where we're at, as of these days. We're currently carried on more than 588 stations, from Guam to Fairbanks to Tuscaloosa. Each week, more than 4.4 million listeners tune in. (These are the same two million people in the country who can only pick up their local NPR station, and would rather listen to us than static.)
These days, Tom spends most of his time reading listener letters and shoo-ing the racoons out of the engine compartment of his '63 Dodge Dart, while Ray paces around the garage trying to figure out a halfway decent puzzler for next week's show. We love doing the show, and we enjoy hearing from all of you! Be sure to drop us an e mail or give us a call sometime.
Oh — and one more thing — Don't drive like my brother!
Cordially,
Contents © 2012, Dewey, Cheetham and Howe
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