Zimmer leaves proud legacy for family

Radio pioneer and Cape Girardeau native Jerome Zimmer, founder of Zimmer Broadcasting, will be honored later this year as an inductee to the Missouri Broadcasters Hall of Fame.

Zimmer began his first station with a partner in 1956 in Dexter, Missouri. His career spanned many decades, and at the time of his death in 2003, the company owned 32 stations in Missouri, Illinois and Kansas.

Zimmer will be inducted at the Missouri Broadcasters Association's annual awards banquet this summer along with Ken and Jane Meyer, owners of stations in southwest Missouri, and longtime St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Mike Shannon. Family members will accept Zimmer's award.

"... My father would be extremely honored and humbled by this recognition," Zimmer's son, John Zimmer, said in an email to the Southeast Missourian.

We congratulate Zimmer's family on the legacy left by Jerome.