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Buffalo Bob Smith Award
Pete Weber began broadcasting in 1972 in his hometown of Galesburg, Illinois. He then moved along South Bend, Indiana, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, and Seattle. But he spent his prime years covering all sports in Buffalo.
In his first Buffalo stop in 1976 on WEBR NewsRadio 970, Pete teamed covered the entire WNY sports scene – game day coverage and commentary on the Bills, Braves and Sabres. He also was part of college football play-by-play for Canisius College; then added college basketball with U.B., Buffalo State, Niagara, and St. Bonaventure. He also did U.B. hockey. At Christmas in 1977, he released a documentary on the history of professional baseball in Buffalo – two years before the Eastern League brought Bison’s baseball back to the city.
Pete left WEBR in August of 1978, to join the Los Angeles Kings as their radio-TV color commentator. He spent three seasons there before moving to Seattle for a season as the Seattle SuperSonics’ play-by-play announcer.
Returning to Buffalo in the fall of 1982, he began freelancing at WBEN Radio, helping with Stan Barron’s “Free-form Sports” program. Ultimately, he began working on Buffalo Bills’ pre- and post-game shows there, and joined Van Miller and Stan Barron in the booth for the 1983 season. He remained at WBEN until the fall of 1988.
During this period, he also did Buffalo Bison broadcasts on WUFO, WXRL, and WEBR. He joined Mike Robitaille in hosting Buffalo Sabres’ cablecasts and journeyed to Sarajevo, Yugoslavia to cover the 1984 Winter Olympic Games for Mutual Radio.
When Triple A baseball returned to War Memorial Stadium in 1985, Weber narrowed his focus there, calling games through 1995. In 1990, he hosted talk shows with Bills’ GM Bill Polian, Head Coach Marv Levy and QB Jim Kelly during that period, and was on the broadcast team for the four Super Bowl seasons.
From 1995-97, Pete returned to hockey, serving as the radio play-by-play man for the Sabres’ broadcasts on CJRN/WWKB/WGR. When the Sabres moved to their current simulcast arrangement, Empire Sports hired Pete to host FanTV Nighttime and covered the Sabres extensively.
The National Hockey League expanded by four teams over the course of the 1998-99 through the 1999-2000 seasons, and Pete was hired by the Nashville Predators to be their first “voice.” He remains there today.
In January 2017, Weber won his fifth Tennessee Sportscaster of the Year award in six years, as voted by the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters (NSSA, renamed NSMA in 2016). Pete has served as an “insider” on Sirius/XM’s NHL Network Radio, and has served as co-host of Slapshot Radio since the fall of 2009.
A native of Galesburg, IL, Pete holds two degrees from the University of Notre Dame. He and his wife Claudia, reside in Nashville.
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