Martin Jeff Krimski, known by the stage names Jefferson Kaye and Jeff Kaye (December 12, 1936 – November 16, 2012) was an American radio, television and film announcer. Among his credits were announcing gigs at WHIM and WRIB in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...

; WBZ in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

; WKBW and WBEN in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

;

WPVI WPVI-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Owned and operated by the ABC television network through its ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on City Avenue in the ...

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; and

NFL Films NFL Productions, LLC, doing business as NFL Films, is the film and television production company of the National Football League. It produces advertisement film, commercials, television programs, feature films, and documentary film, documentaries ...

. Kaye was born in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

. He served in the US Air Force during the Korean War and was stationed in Morocco where he met his wife Suzanne in 1958. Kaye began his radio career in Providence in the late 1950s, where Krimski became "Jeff Krimm," then "JK the DJ" on WHIM (1110) and WRIB (1220-AM). By 1961, he had caught the attention of WBZ (AM-1030) station executives, who brought him on as part of the

Westinghouse Broadcasting The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndi ...

-owned station's transition from the middle-of-the-road ''"Live Five"'' to a more aggressive top-40 music programming format. As program director of WKBW, he produced the station's adaptation of

The War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in '' Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel was ...

. For his work on NFL Films, Kaye won several

Sports Emmy Award The Sports Emmy Awards, or Sports Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), the Sports E ...

s. He also narrated the Chicago Bulls' first championship documentary, "Learning To Fly", as well as a history of DePauw University football, "A Tradition of Excellence." Kaye died on November 16, 2012, of throat cancer at age 75 in

Binghamton, New York Binghamton ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the c ...

References

External links

R.I.P.: Buffalo, Boston Broadcaster Jeff Kaye Dies At 75
''Media Confidential''. Retrieved November 16, 2012. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaye, Jefferson 1936 births 2012 deaths NFL announcers NFL Films people Radio personalities from Buffalo, New York Television personalities from Buffalo, New York Mass media people from Baltimore People from Maryland People from Binghamton, New York Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Deaths from throat cancer in the United States