`Car Talk' Hosts to Speak at MIT

Move over, Alan Greenspan. Harvard's commencement speaker may no longer be the biggest draw come graduation time.

Thomas L. Magliozzi and Raymond F. Magliozzi, hosts of the National Public Radio (NPR) program "Car Talk," will be the guest speakers at MIT's commencement June 4.

Known to the American public as "Click and Clack, the Tappet brothers," the Magliozzis, both MIT graduates, represent a definite change from past MIT commencement speakers, which have included President Clinton, AIDS researcher David D. Ho and Vice President Al Gore '69.

Pooja Shukla, president of MIT's senior class, said the Magliozzis were chosen because of their popularity and their ties to the institute.

"They're both graduates, and they're a very original pair who run a successful NPR program," Shukla said. "They speak to a wide audience which includes a very intellectual audience and the common guy on the street."

MIT President Charles M. Vest cited the brothers' ability to relate to the experiences of MIT undergraduates as one of the major reasons they were chosen.

"Both on and off campus, Click and Clack rank among MIT's best-known and best-loved graduates," Vest said in a news release. "Their irrepressible and inventive approach to their work, their commitment to serving the larger community, their intellectual curiosity and, above all, their relentless irreverence are all qualities that we cherish and admire here at MIT."

However, not all of MIT's seniors were pleased with the choice of speakers. Several students expressed their dissatisfaction to Shukla, and student reaction was published in The Tech, MIT's student newspaper.

"In the past we have had the President, the Vice President, Nobel Prize winners, the Secretary General [of the United Nations]-and this year we get two guys who own a gas station," one senior told the Tech.

In response, Shukla said most of the negative reaction came from people who had not heard of Click and Clack, and reaction overall was positive.

"Right now, the overall reaction is overwhelming positive," Shukla said. "I've gotten e-mail messages from parents saying they were ecstatic about the choice. I just hope that people reserve judgment until they hear the speech."

Alex Huppe, Harvard's director of public affairs, called MIT's choice "brilliant."

"It's perfect for MIT," Huppe said. "I thinkbetween Harvard's choice of Alan Greenspan [ascommencement speaker] and MIT's choice of theTappet brothers, we'll have three of the mostlistened-to men in America in Cambridge."

"Car Talk" Was first broadcast in 1977 onWBUR-FM in Boston before NPR picked up the programand began broadcasting it nationally in 1987.Currently, the show is carried on more than 370stations to two million listeners nationwide.

Since beginning the show, the Magliozzis haveappeared on "60 Minutes," "The David LettermanShow" and "The Today Show" and were the recipientsof the George Foster Peabody Award for excellencein broadcasting in 1992.

They were recently inducted into the Radio Hallof Fame and maintain a syndicated newspaper columncalled "Click and Clack Talk Cars" as well as aWeb site.

The Magliozzis are Cambridge natives, andRaymond Magliozzi continues to operate an autorepair shop, the Good News Garage, near the MITcampus

"It's perfect for MIT," Huppe said. "I thinkbetween Harvard's choice of Alan Greenspan [ascommencement speaker] and MIT's choice of theTappet brothers, we'll have three of the mostlistened-to men in America in Cambridge."

"Car Talk" Was first broadcast in 1977 onWBUR-FM in Boston before NPR picked up the programand began broadcasting it nationally in 1987.Currently, the show is carried on more than 370stations to two million listeners nationwide.

Since beginning the show, the Magliozzis haveappeared on "60 Minutes," "The David LettermanShow" and "The Today Show" and were the recipientsof the George Foster Peabody Award for excellencein broadcasting in 1992.

They were recently inducted into the Radio Hallof Fame and maintain a syndicated newspaper columncalled "Click and Clack Talk Cars" as well as aWeb site.

The Magliozzis are Cambridge natives, andRaymond Magliozzi continues to operate an autorepair shop, the Good News Garage, near the MITcampus