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We report with deep sadness the passing of MethodShop‘s announcer, Fred Facey, on Sunday, April 13th, 2003 after a long battle with cancer.
Remembering Fred Facey
You might have heard Fred’s warm familiar voice on shows such as the TODAY Show, Meet The Press, MSNBC‘s The News with Brian Williams, and billboards for Carson Daly, Saturday Night Live (SNL) as well as many commercials.
Here are some examples of Fred’s larger than life voice for NBC News.
Fred Facey’s Evening Sign-Off Voiceover For WNBC-TV
In addition to his work for NBC’s national news and entertainment programs, Facey was also a voice of the local NBC New York TV station, WNBC.
Before TV stations ran 24/7 programming like they do today, they all used to sign-off for the evening after their late news or late night talk shows. After the final program aired for the evening (or early morning), an announcer would sign-off for the station and a video of the national anthem would play. This started to change in the 1980s as most stations extended their programming to run 24/7.
In this video example, Fred Facey reads the sign-off message for WNBC before the national anthem.
Fred Facey & MethodShop.com
Fred kindly recorded a a series of audio intros for MethodShop in 1999 and picked up the lunch or bar tab too many times for us to count. One of his favorite places to go was a midtown Manhattan restaurant called Hurley’s Salon.
In the summer of 2002, we took a series of photos at a lunch with Fred and his best friend, fellow NBC announcer, Don Pardo. After Fred’s passing, NBC News asked for permission to use one of the photos in their obituary segment. We gladly obliged. Here is the image of Fred Facey that aired on NBC News With Brian Williams.
We Miss You Fred!
A kind and gentle man with a wonderful sense of humor and a smooth sense of style, Fred was a true master at his craft. To say he will be greatly missed is an understatement. His memory will always remain close to our hearts. We miss you Salt! Mr. Facey was 72.
MethodShop.com’s First Blog Post
When I was a teenager, I saw Fred Facey appearing on screen twice. Once when substituting for Don Pardo on WNBC’s News 4/LIVE AT FIVE in New York, and on The TODAY show being interviewed by Katie Couric. Although since Fred Facey had a wonderful sense of humor, he would’ve been great for hosting SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE just like NBC NEWS’ Edwin Newman did which I thought it was hysterical.