Longtime WABC-AM radio reporter George Weber was found dead in his Brooklyn apartment today, the victim of an apparent homicide, ABC News Radio Vice President Steve Jones said. Weber, 47, worked at WABC for 12 years as the on-air reporter for popular shows such as “Curtis and Kuby.” The station let him go amid programming changes last year, and he had since worked as a freelancer for ABC News Radio, the national network. His last newscast was on March 15. Jones said he called the police when Weber failed to show up for a scheduled shift yesterday.
Police at first found nothing amiss at the three-story brownstone on Henry Street in Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens neighborhood, where Weber lived alone on the ground floor, Jones said.
But yesterday, police checked again and found Weber dead in his apartment, Jones said.
The police released few details of Weber’s death. A spokesman said only that the victim was found dead at the scene around 9 a.m. with a wound to his neck. Autopsy results were expected tomorrow, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner’s office.
Weber was a veteran radio newsman who worked at stations including KGO in San Francisco and KTLK and KMPC in Los Angeles before coming to New York.
“He really loved news radio and enjoyed being on the air and enjoyed the connection he had with his listeners,” Jones said. “He also loved Brooklyn and his neighborhood.”
Jones added, “Our condolences and prayers go out to George’s family and friends at this very difficult time.”
Weber’s death stunned residents of the neighborhood of handsome row houses.
Nick Olivieri, who lives across the street, said he had known Weber for nearly a decade.
“He was a real good guy,” Olivieri said. “This is a shame – this is a shock.”
Weber recounted on his blog how he was fascinated with radio from an early age and even set up a makeshift radio station in the basement of his childhood home in Philadelphia.
“While still in high school, I talked my way into a job at a daytime-only radio station in nearby Doylestown, Pa. – WBUX,” he wrote.
Fellow ABC radio reporter Aaron Katersky said it was strange to be reporting on the slaying of someone to whom he had phoned in the details of news stories himself.
“He was a nice fellow with an irreverent take on some of the day’s events,” Katersky said.
There were no immediate arrests.
{SI Advance/Matzav.com Newscenter}
I never liked his voice!