WABC radio newsman George Weber Stabbed to death

WABC radio newsman George Weber found stabbed to death in Brooklyn apartment

BY David Hinkley, Caitlin Millat And Edgar Sandoval
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Updated Monday, March 23rd 2009, 12:01 AM

Longtime New York radio newsman George Weber was found stabbed to death in his Brooklyn apartment Sunday morning, cops said.

The bloody body of Weber, a passionate fan of the city who spent a decade doing local news on WABC morning radio, was found just after 9 a.m. when he didn't show up for work.

"I used to hear his voice in the top and the bottom of the hour. It's a voice New Yorkers know. Now that voice has been silenced," said Aaron Katersky, 33, an ABC colleague who found himself covering a friend's murder.

Weber, 47, was freelancing at ABC's national radio network after being laid off last year.

Cops believe Weber was killed Friday evening. He was found in bed with stab wounds in the neck and chest, cops said.

Police were investigating the possibility he was killed by a male date.

There was no sign of forced entry to his first-floor brownstone apartment on Henry St. in Carroll Gardens, cops said.

The front door was locked, but a back door was unlocked. The apartment had been ransacked, though it was not clear what, if anything, was taken.

The murder weapon was not recovered.

Weber would have celebrated his 48th birthday Monday.

Curtis Sliwa, who did a 5 a.m. "pre-show" with Weber for eight years at WABC before the regular "Curtis & Kuby" morning show, called his death "a tremendous loss."

"News ran through his veins and arteries 24 hours a day," Sliwa said.

"He wasn't a rip-and-read newsman. He wanted to be there," he said. "And you know what his trick was? He'd pack up his dog, Noodles, a dachshund, and walk him there. People would see the dog, they'd pet the dog, they'd get a level of comfort with him. And then he could get them to talk."

Noodles died a few years ago.

Weber told the Daily News last year that he had turned down a job in California because he didn't want to leave New York.

"Brooklyn's my home. I like being the news guy here," he said.

Calling himself "the news guy," Weber maintained a lively blog. His last entry, a rant about his battles with bedbugs, was posted Friday.

He made his daily visit to his regular bar, the Blarney Rock on W, 33rd St., as usual on Friday afternoon.

"He seemed fine," said the waitress who saw him.

Patrons and staff at the bar, where Weber was such a fixture that his picture hangs on the wall, were stunned to hear of his murder.

"He was like family here," said weekend manager James Donovan. "George Web, dead? I can't believe it. He was one of the sweetest guys I've ever met."

Waitress Andrea Tierney was baffled. "He didn't have any enemies. None at all," she said. "Who could want to kill him?"

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