I’ve been somewhat slow to “fix” this problem, partly because it wasn’t clear what was going on. The financial collapse of 2 of the “Big 3” UAW controlled car companies has hit advertising budgets hard. As a result, the revenue supporting the group of people who make a living talking about cars has dried up.
The “Big 2” Saturday AM car shows were Car & Driver Radio and Motor Trend Radio with Bob Long – produced by the magazines of the same name. (do people still buy magazines?).
Bob Long left Motor Trend Radio in October 2010 and now has his own show called Bob Long’s Auto World
http://www.autoworldradio.com/awr_BobLong.asp
Car & Driver Radio no longer exists. The other people who used to work for Car & Driver radio are now working for Motor Trend Radio – every once in a while they forget the name of their new show, which just creates more confusion.
I’ve reset all the schedule items for all of the car shows, which will force a retest to make sure what we’re hearing. Please listen carefully and don’t assume just because it sounds like a car show, that it’s correct.
And just a reminder – college football season is here – if you hear Clark Howard on Saturday afternoon and he isn’t listed, the station is probably carrying a college football game that it can’t stream.
With regard to auto shows… many radio stations have switched to Saturday shows sponsored by a local service center and co-hosted by the owner and technicians.
People may not be buying new cars, but they need to maintain current vehicles.
A local show brings the station some ad revenue and provides callers and Q&A segments which are more ‘tuned’ to localized conditions, climate, market, etc.
Better deal for the stations, service garages, and listeners. Win, win, win.
Those are even fading away. In the “good old days”, those local shows would be people asking “How can I replace the timing belt on my car?”, etc… now very little on cars can be done by the owner, and only some of the repairs can be done by the independent repair shops….
One caller after another “I have a problem with my car”, followed by “Well, the only way to deal with that is to call for an appointment and bring it in Monday” is really bad radio. It’s only one step above the health food supplement infomercials.
A few years ago, I had a local auto guy bully me into listing his show – he was sure a national company was going to syndicate his local car show. A “how do I fix my car” show is even less viable as a national show…. Click and Clack being an exception, but if you listen closely, that show has little to do with car repairs.
Yeah, anyone who really does their own vehicle servicing will find DIY info on the internet and ‘how-to’ videos on YouTube.
Some of it depends on intelligence and ingenuity. You can do a front-end alignment using a precision level, tubing, floor tiles, metric tape measure, a square, and geometry/trigonometry combined with a healthy dose of accuracy and patience.
Now the typical auto show talk host would say “just bring it to us for an alignment” to which I’d reply; the machine is only as accurate as the grease monkey operating it… no thanks, I’ve left most places with a worse ‘alignment’ than when I arrived.
Yes, many shows are just a step above the health supplement ads… at least car shows have some entertaining caller Q&A’s.
We listen to ‘Click & Clack’ on occasion… for entertainment.
As with the local shows, once in awhile I pick up a useful tip or obscure technical info which might help with troubleshooting.
Otherwise, for me, it’s entertainment and background noise on a Saturday morning… and many callers are just funny material.
If the station keeps the show, and the sponsor keeps paying for it, there must be enough audience or ROI to keep running it. ??
Not sure what all these radio stations will do in the future… it seems they’re getting slaughtered by FCC rules and the net.