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Jeff Kaye, the onetime WBEN morning man, who ran WKBW during it's glory days, and later went on to national fame as the voice of NFL Films has died.
Kaye had retired to his home in New Jersey after leaving NFL Films in 1990 with the loss of a vocal chord to cancer. He was 75 years old and had been suffering with throat cancer for a long time.
While Kaye's face-- and even his behind the scenes role as producer of early Buffalo Bills broadcasts and KB's famous "War of The Worlds" broadcast -- may not be familiar to many, his voice, that authortative, deep, voice is likely to trigger a memory or too.
Here's some vintage Jeff Kaye from WBEN's Steve Cichon and his staffannouncer.com pop culture history site.
Click to Play
WKBW 1972
The famous Jeff Kaye produced and narrated look at KB in 1971, with jocks Danny Neaverth, Jack Sheridan, Don Berns, Sandy Beach, Jack Armstrong, Bob mcCrea, and Casey Piotrowski, with Kaye's thoughts and insights on each in between. First appeared on album form from the industry periodical "Programmer's Digest."
Here's a sample of Kaye's work with NFL Films
Here's Kaye's Biography from the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame 2002 Induction ceremony:
Jeff Kaye
A radio renaissance man... A brash yet steady voice of gold, a masterful way with both the written and spoken word, and a producer par excellence, Kaye blazed into Buffalo in the mid-60's as KB's nighttime teeny-bopper leader and soon was at the rudder of the K-Big giant ship as the station's program director. Jefferson was responsible for bringing eastern seaboard phone operators to their collective knees with his 1968 adaptation of Orson Wells' "War of the Worlds," with folks calling from all points on the map to see if Grand Island was indeed under Martian control. In 1977, he took over the most hallowed slot in Buffalo radio, morning drive at WBEN, as only the 3rd man to sit in that announcers chair. Jeff's decades worth work as the radio producer for Buffalo Bills Football set him up for a job at NFL Films, which he has held since leaving Buffalo, voicing countless NFL video compilations.
