George Kello
The one and only George Kello passed away and skipped across the cosmic rainbow on June 6, 2023, after a short illness. He was the one who started it all! The entire Progressive WOWI-FM family misses you, brother!
WOWI's first on-air "Curator of Sound", George Kello, more than any other, wove his way in and out of the station. "I was hired and fired at least four times', he said. George had an 8 pm to midnight progressive show on WOWI's precursor station WRVC and Brinsfield was smart enough to allow Kello to continue his remarkably ground-breaking "Sounds of Life" show. George's intro for the show every night, as published in Action magazine, March 21, 1970: "When people force music about truth, loneliness, love, and revolution underground, it is because their ears are afraid to experience the sounds of life. This is George Kello, not underground, but above ground". Kello even sold his own ads (Checker Flag and Norman Goodwin's shop the Tree House). Frankie's "Got It" Record and Tapes was his first sponsor.
George was an artist, social activist, community organizer, and concerned citizen. He was ornery, smart, curious, and a ‘man of the world’ who understood the bigger picture. Family members reminded us of his ‘Shark Car’ (an art car sculpted into the form) that he drove around town. (What we would do for a pic of that!). George and his family lived in Ghent.Originally from the Norfolk area, he graduated from Bayside High in VA Beach and did a stint at a broadcasting school before landing the gig at RVC then WOWI, and did a short stint as Max Baxter on WNOR-FM before realizing that corporate radio was not to his liking. He was an intrepid traveler (with a preference for searching out high-quality street art) and a self-professed deadbeat intellectual whose sharp-witted running musings on life in all its mutated glory enhanced the airwaves and our interactions.