Mr. Weber, 47, had worked as a newscaster for a number of shows on WABC-AM, including the popular talk-radio program that had been hosted by Curtis Sliwa and Ron Kuby. In February 2008, after more than 12 years at WABC, Mr. Weber was laid off in a cost-cutting move, according to his Web site, www.georgeweber.net. Since that time, he had been employed by ABC News Radio, the national network, as a freelance anchor.

Image George Weber

Steve Jones, a vice president of the network, said in a statement that Mr. Weber was “a consummate journalist.”

Mr. Weber’s last newscast was on March 15.

Aaron Katersky, a friend and fellow ABC radio reporter, said colleagues had become worried on Saturday when Mr. Weber did not show up for his shift. The police found him dead on Sunday morning when they searched his ground-floor apartment on Henry Street in Carroll Gardens, where he lived alone.

Mr. Weber’s radio career began when he was 16 and talked his way into a job at a daytime-only station in Doylestown, Pa., near where he grew up. Before he came to New York, he had worked in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Denver.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a statement that Mr. Weber had been “an absolutely central part” of the mayor’s Friday show on WABC. “George called news events as he saw them with little regard to party politics or ideology,” Mr. Bloomberg said.