From left, Peter Bondra, Al Koken, Joe Beninati, Ron Weber, John Walton, Ken Sabourin, Craig Laughlin, and Ben Raby (photos via the Caps)
Longtime Caps radio voice Ron Weber is moving away. After calling Capitals games for 23 years, and attending them ever since, Mr. Weber, now 90, is moving to the Boston area where he’ll be closer to his family. He had announced this news a while ago but the Caps picked the night before Thanksgiving to honor him.
From the team’s first season in 1974 at the Capital Centre in Landover, Md., until its move to D.C in 1997, Mr. Weber announced 1,936 consecutive games on WTOP-1500 AM and later WMAL-630 AM, without missing a game.
Mr. Weber received hockey’s highest broadcasting honor in 2010, when he was presented the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award by the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. In 2017, he was inducted into the D.C. Sports Hall of Fame.
He told me that the hardest part about leaving is that he’s going to miss going to Capitals games.
He spent his retirement watching Capitals games at Capital One Arena. Even as a spectator, he kept extensive notes on each game and greeted fans who stopped by to thank him for introducing them to the sport.
“I broadcast a bunch of men playing a boys’ game,” Mr. Weber told The Washington Post in 2016. “But people say, ‘You’re the reason I’m a hockey fan, listening to you on cold winter nights.’ I brought pleasure to a lot of people, and that’s very heartwarming.”
