Justus "Buddy" Webber, leading Seattle radio figure
Hyfler/Rosner
82
DATELINE: BOTHELL, Wash.
AP
Justus "Buddy" Webber, a leading Seattle radio personality
and television show host in the 1960s and '70s, is dead at
82.
Webber, known for goofy stunts and an uncanny ability to
avoid verbal pitfalls at the last second, died March 11 of
pulmonary fibrosis, relatives and longtime associates said.
A native of Bluffton, Ind., Webber spent four years in the
Marine Corps, married Betty Heck in the late 1940s and
started a big band which he led on trumpet with his wife
singing by his side.
He began his radio career in Indianapolis, later worked in
Omaha, Neb., and at KGO in San Francisco for four years
before becoming the morning drive-time announcer on KVI in
Seattle in 1959.
"He had a rare talent," former KVI program director Jack
Macdonald said. "Buddy would start a line on the air and
he'd get to a point where it would be disaster, and he would
just stop there and leave it right in your head.
"When he was talking about the weather: 'Oh, boy, it's cold
out today, it's as cold as the balls (pause) on a pool
table."'
Webber and fellow disc jockey Bob Hartwick made more than in
250 promotional appearances for KVI in one year, appearing
before women's groups as "the Hardwick and Webber Social and
Marital Adjustment Service."
To publicize the world's fair in Seattle in 1962, they raced
each other around the world, going in opposite directions.
Webber later moved to KOMO Television as host of the morning
"Buddy Webber Show" on a set resembling a small house with a
stuffed moose head that made smart-aleck remarks. He also
had an afternoon show on KOMO Radio.
Baptized as a Jehovah's Witness in 1963, he left
broadcasting in the early 1970s to join the group's ministry
in the Canary Islands.
Webber's wife Betty died in 1995. Survivors include his wife
of eight years, Carol Jensen; daughter Jane Praetsch of
Wrentham, Mass.; sons Dan Webber of Cadillac, Mich., Mike
Webber of Westerly, R.I., and Tim Webber of Reno, Nev. and
sister, Dorothy Wilkey, of Bluffton.
A memorial service is scheduled April 2 at the Northshore
Senior Center.