Broncos play-by-play announcer remembered as prankster

Humboldt Broncos play-by-play announcer Tyler Bieber is being remembered as an avid football fan, a great guy and a prankster.

The 29-year-old, who was born and raised in Humboldt, was one of 15 people who died in a crash between the team bus and a semi on April 6.

Andy Cohen, the morning show host at Power 99 in Prince Albert, spent three years working alongside Bieber at 107.5 Bolt FM in Humboldt.

“He was a very talented and creative man … very articulate (and) well-spoken,” Cohen said.

He called Bieber a great reporter and a very knowledgeable sports guy.

“He was so humble, you didn’t know anything that he had going on. He didn’t talk about himself a lot, but he was always a social guy. He was always up to go bowling or (grab a) beer, because of that we became really good friends,” Cohen said.

Bieber was known in the Humboldt office as a bit of a prankster.

During one summer fair, Cohen was unable to be in the parade that kicks off the event, so Bieber had Bolt FM shirts made with Cohen’s face on them.

“Tyler wanted me to be a part of the parade,” he said.

This wasn’t the first time that Bieber made Cohen the butt of a joke.

“He was a prankster, especially on me. He went through the trouble of buying a couple dozen hotdog packages and he tied string around each wiener, individually, and hung them from the ceiling tile rails, he did this the night before April Fool’s Day. He even tracked down my house and tied some to the back bumper of my truck, so I drove around town with a bunch of hotdogs on my truck,” he said with a chuckle.

“When I got to my office, it smelled like a gross meat locker. There was a ton of hotdogs. He wanted to prank me but he ended up pranking the whole office because the whole radio station ended up smelling like hotdogs.”

Cohen said Bieber’s sense of humor will be missed.

“It was one of those sense of humors that just comes out of nowhere. You’ll sit in a room for five minutes, in conversation, and he just knows when to strike with that one-two punch,” he said.

The two worked together at Bolt FM for three years before Cohen left for a job in Prince Albert. Cohen said the two sadly didn’t keep in touch that often after he left.

“It’s not one of those things where you don’t talk to anybody, you can pick up where you left off when you meet again, but unfortunately that won’t happen now,” he said.

Cohen and a number of old co-workers from Bolt FM will be meeting at the Humboldt vigil tonight.

“There is going to be some celebration, I don’t know if that’s the right word for it but we’re going to be getting together and remembering Tyler,” he said.

The vigil in Humboldt will take place at the Elgar Peterson Arena at 7 p.m., CJME and CKOM will carry the vigil live starting at 5 p.m.