George Zeller

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I was shocked and saddened to learn of George Zeller's sudden passing earlier today (March 20) in a house fire this morning. I had exchanged emails with George earlier this week on NASWA editorial matters as he was slowly recovering from his recent Covid-19 vaccination. The news article in the online Cleveland Comeback mentioned overcrowded electrical outlets/extension cords as the cause of the accidental fire. George was 71 years old.

George and I knew each other for about 40 years. George came to several DXpeditions at Gifford Pinchot and French Creek State Parks. We attended many of the same radio hobby gatherings over the years. For several years, I traveled to Cleveland for work; George and I would go out to dinner on those occasions. Naturally, any time my company was mentioned in the local newspaper George would eagerly forward that information to me. George also traveled to the Winter SWL Festival in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania each year to gather with like minded radio people. He attended other radio conventions too over the year’s throughout the country.

George was well known in the greater Cleveland area as an Economist who kept close tabs on the Ohio economy. The Economic Indicators project he worked on provided continually updated information on poverty, earnings, and the economy in all Ohio counties and communities, with related demographics. In Ohio, Economic Indicators data include annual income trends for all 612 Ohio school districts. Detailed data was also available for job growth and payroll earnings in all Ohio counties going back to 1979, including measures of the very large job losses suffered by Cleveland and Ohio during the 2000s recession that has lingered longer in Ohio than it did elsewhere in the United States. Over the year’s he mixed with local political figures and served as a volunteer in a number of community organizations serving the greater Cleveland area. He was a regular on several talk radio programs when Ohio’s economy was the lead topic.

George was an active baseball and football fan. He attended baseball games wherever he could. He spent time traveling to difference cities attending games in many major league and minor league baseball stadiums. I recall making such a trip to Camden Yards in Baltimore with several others to catch an Orioles-Yankees baseball game when my children were youngsters. He was an enthusiastic Cleveland Indians and Cleveland Browns fan going back to the glory days of the 1950’s. He never forgave the Indians for trading away Rocky Colavito.

For twenty years George wrote a column about unlicensed pirate and clandestine shortwave radio broadcasting news in Monitoring Times magazine. He was also a contributing editor to Passport to World Band Radio, the definitive guide to international shortwave broadcasting frequencies, schedules, and receiving equipment. For decades he wrote a column on Clandestine radio broadcasting in the monthly issues of The ACE from the Association of Clandestine Radio Enthusiasts. Annually, he hosted the Pirate Radio Forum at the Winter SWL Festival in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania as well as being the host of the prize raffle at the Saturday night banquet. In recent years, George was the editor of the Pirate Radio Report column for the North American Shortwave Association. He joined NASWA in December 1965 as a lad of sixteen.

George was always fun to be with and a real character to boot. No matter what the topic of the conversation was, he had a story that may or may not have been pertinent. There was never a dull moment when he was part of the group. George Zeller will be missed by all of us.

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A couple of notes about George…

I always looked forward to reading his e-mails. There was a certain “Jean Shepherd”-like air to them. They would start with the topic at hand, but then meander all over the place. If the subject was radio-related, they would start there but maybe then make some reference to a political or economic matter or a story bout a community like Intercourse, PA or Tomatotown, OH that seemed to have nothing to do with radio. If the subject, as it often could be, was Ohio’s economic situation, you could count on a reference to our DXing world, its personalities, maybe a piece of equipment or some radio history — again seemingly not at all germane to the original topic.

But, like Mr. Shepherd, all was and always would be tied up nice and neatly with the last sentence or two. How he got there, I never knew. But in the end it always made sense (especially to George) and never failed to entertain.

My second remembrance is as a privileged part of his “act” as master of ceremonies at the Winterfest raffle and other radio-related festivities. The cheesehead, the googles, the little Pancho doll, the Barto Bag, the Barto Box — all of it developed over time, like the act of most great stand-up comedians. But a little note about the goggles: George could see very little through them. As Rich, Alan and I would carry up prizes and the prize winning tickets to George, we usually had to tell him what he had and whose name—or number or ham call sign-- was on the ticket. And then it was off to the races — usually like the Marx Brothers’ day at the races full of non-sequiturs, inside jokes (which we all were a part of) and various foolishness. But the goggles were an integral part of the act and they were not coming off until the last prize was awarded. At least when they worked, he got sort of a head massage out of them.

I came to understand over time that George possessed a certain amount of stage fright or at least some serious misgivings about being an MC. Yet, you’d never know it to watch him both metaphorically waltz magnificently and then trip over his own feet — sometimes simultaneously and always on purpose.

George was an immensely intelligent man who was always willing to play the fool if he could entertain his friends. Despite those misgivings about being an MC — he seemed so unnerved at times that he was almost to the point of exhaustion by the end — he never let us down when we asked. He could talk passionately about economics using terms and discussing theories that only the most learned could understand and then perform slapstick comedy a few seconds later.

We’re all going to badly miss George. I know I am. I can picture him explaining the Ohio economic situation, using DXing terms, with the Almighty, who will just give him a free pass.