'Car Talk' host Tom Magliozzi dead at 77

Tom Magliozzi, longtime host of 'Car Talk', died on Monday due to complications from Alzheimer's disease, NPR announced today. He was 77 years old.

'Tom's been such a dominant, positive personality amongst us for so long that all of us in the public radio family -- and I include our millions of listeners -- will find this news very difficult to receive,' said NPR Executive Producer Tom Berman in a message to friends and fans.

Tom and his brother Ray started co-hosting the call-in automotive advice program on Boston's WBU R radio in 1977, and it was picked up by NPR in 1987. New shows ran weekly through 2012, when the pair retired. It's been in reruns ever since. The show received a Peabody Award in 1992.

Known to fans as 'Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers,' at the time they went off the air, 'Car Talk' had an audience of over three million listeners and was featured on more than 600 radio stations nationwide. It was also distributed as a popular podcast in recent years.