NPR's Car Talk Reaching The End Of the Road

The end of the road has been plotted for one of public radio's most popular shows, "Car Talk," but the Saturday staple will keep rolling in its afterlife.

According to cleveland.com,  NPR announced last week that "Best of Car Talk," the show's current broadcast, will end production next year, on Sept. 30, 2017. It will continue as a podcast, however, and some stations may continue to air repeats.

The Peabody Award-winning "Car Talk" started as a local program on Boston's WBUR in 1977 and has aired nationally since 1987, featuring mechanic brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi bantering knowledgeably and humorously about cars and life.

New episodes ended and repackaged "Best of" broadcasts started with Tom's retirement in 2012. He died at 77 in 2014 of complications from Alzheimer's disease.

Despite some audience slippage for the "Best of" shows, NPR says "Car Talk" has more than 2.6 million weekly listeners and still is a gateway for new listeners.