Longtime KHQ weather forecaster George Maupin died Tuesday in Spokane, Wash. at the age of 79.
Maupin began working at KHQ as a news producer in 1993. He retired in 2012, after nearly 20 years at the Spokane NBC affiliate.
To say he broke the mold is an understatement; he shattered it into a million pieces. George was a luminary that was so unpredictable, so funny, you couldn’t take your eyes off him, because you know you’d miss the magic. What many may not know is that before Spokane, George was a massively popular sports anchor in Las Vegas. He spent his days swapping verbal jabs with Muhammad Ali and other boxing greats at the height of the sport. He often shared stories of that time, remembering once when he was in arena the crowd starting chanting “George! George! George!” a sign of just how popular he was at that time.
He was known for his catchphrase “Spoko Mojo” which viewers would shout at him when they saw him.
In his obituary, the station said “In the history of television broadcasting in the Inland Northwest, there has never, and never will be again, someone like George Maupin.”