‘Gomez’ Adams: A Life On the Radio Airwaves
Radio personality Glenn “Gomez” Adams celebrating a 44-year career with a new book, plans to launch a podcast
By Mary Beth Roach
“I’ve always envisioned this show as kind of like a diner. It’s like comfort food. It’s a comfortable place. We’re talking about local things. We like to highlight local people.”
This is how long-time radio personality Glenn “Gomez” Adams, 65, describes his show,”Gomez and Company,” which has been on the air on Galaxy Media Partner’s TK99 since 1994.
Adams has been keeping it local not only on TK99, but at various CNY radio stations throughout his 44-year career, starting with WRMV 1420 AM in Herkimer on Oct. 6, 1981; then Magic 104.7 (now B104.7) in Syracuse in the early 1980s; and Y94FM, also in Syracuse, from 1984 to 1994.
He has branched out into other mediums over the years. Most recently — and coinciding with his radio anniversary month — he has written a new book, titled “You’re Caller Number 7, Please Try Again,” which was released in October. He has described the book as radio memoir — “just funny stories that I’ve told on the air over the years about some of the people that I’ve met and worked with.”
He began writing the book during the pandemic. “I just started tinkering with some of these funny stories that I’ve shared with friends. The first draft is all handwritten on yellow legal pads,” he said.
As he finished it, his wife, Kim, helped with some of the editing. He showed it to a publisher and got the green light.
“I enjoyed reliving those memories and putting it to paper,” he said.
After more than four decades, there’s a lot of stories!
His longevity and popularity in the industry can be attributed to his perspective of the radio business and his roots in the community.
While radio might be considered a music and advertising business, Adams sees it as a “people business.”
“The things that we talk about on the air and the guests that we have are all people everybody knows,” he said.
As he explained, if people just wanted to hear music, they could listen to Sirius, YouTube or Spotify, but with radio, he said, “there’s a local connection that those other platforms don’t offer.”
“I think there’s two ways to make a living in radio. One is to move around a lot and the other is to not move around a lot. I chose the latter,” he said, with a chuckle. He added that many of those who took the jobs that were first offered to him were gone within the first year for a variety of reasons, including stations being sold; new managements; or new formats.
Adams has stayed true to his local roots. He grew up in Marcellus and graduated from Marcellus High School in 1978. Today, he and Kim live in Cicero, where she is from.
He strengthens those community ties when he gets out from behind the mic at the Armory Square station and attends various events, like Taste of Syracuse and the Syracuse Nationals, which Galaxy hosts and meets his listeners. He has hosted several telethons on local television stations. He is well-known for his weekly programs during the football and basketball seasons with Syracuse University coaches Jim Boeheim, Dino Babers and now Fran Brown and Adrian Autry. He continues stand-up comedy gigs at the Funny Bone Comedy Club at Destiny USA and various other area venues.
But while he has kept it local, he has certainly rubbed elbows with some luminaries over the years — including several presidents; comedian Steve Martin, one of his comic heroes; and music icon Billy Joel, whom he introduced when Joel appeared at the Dome in 2015.
Finding his way to radio
Interestingly, the radio legend originally had a different career goal. Adams went to SUNY Buffalo for chemical engineering, but after three semesters, he realized it was not going to pan out.
He returned to his native Marcellus and started attending Onondaga Community College. He began hanging out with a guy he knew who had a weekly show on the school’s radio station and found it fun. So, he got into the radio-television program, called RTV, at OCC.
He left OCC in the fall of 1981 — without a degree — and started working at WRMV in Herkimer. After about a year there, he returned to the Syracuse area and took a job at Channel 3, now WSTM, working as a teleprompter operator for the news, a cameraman for the local bowling show and even played Peppermint Pete on the station’s kids show called “Saturday Showboat.”
He was at the television station for about a year, before moving back to radio and Magic 104.7 (now B104.7), which was a Top 40 station then. In 1984 he switched to Y94FM. And while he had already assumed the last name of Adams as part of his radio persona, it was while at Y that he got the nickname “Gomez,” he said. The program manager there at the time liked the radio personalities to have nicknames; he thought listeners remembered them better that way. So, Adams and some co-workers were kicking around some ideas, such as “Watkins Glenn” Adams and Glenn “Grizzly” Adams. But when someone suggested “Gomez” from the one-time “Addams Family” TV show, the name stuck. Although Gomez points out that he spells Adams with one D.
After 10 years at Y, he moved to TK99.
Fate intervenes
While he didn’t receive his OCC degree in the 1980s, fate intervened one day in 2016, and Adams received a sign — literally and figuratively — that it was time to re-enroll and get that diploma.
He recalled that he was on his way to Marcellus one day when he was sitting at the red light at the Onondaga Road entrance to OCC. He said that while waiting for the light to turn, he saw on the electronic message board that enrollment for the 2016 spring semester was ending within the next few days. Then, he said, the traffic signal turned and he saw the advance green arrow to turn into the college campus. So, he turned in, went to the Gordon Student Center, told the staff at the information table that he was looking to re-enroll and was directed to Anthony Vadala, of the Broadcast Media Communications Department. He entered the office, told Vadala what he was hoping to do and was told to wait. In less than a minute, Vadala returned with a box and Adams said sitting on the top of the box was his records, which showed he only needed three more classes to get that degree.
He ended up graduating in May of 2016, with a degree in electronic media communications and he said that he went to the commencement. “I got my diploma, got my tassel, got my gown.” For those who opt not to attend their own graduation ceremonies, he said, “I tell them you’re missing out on a great day. You worked hard for that.”
Once graduated, Adams has remain committed to OCC, having served as a member of its foundation board of directors; having received John H. Mulroy Founder’s Award and having been inducted into the college’s “Alumni Faces” wall Oct. 6, 2021, exactly 40 years since he got his start on radio.
Looking ahead
With another radio anniversary recently marked, Adams talked about what the future might hold for him. Of course, he plans to continue with his radio program at TK99.
He is scheduling appearances and book signings for that first book, which is available on Amazon and his website, BaldGomez.com and he is already at work on a second book, appropriately titled, “You’re Caller Number 8, Please Try Again.”
“As it turns out, I have more radio stories than I thought,” he chuckled.
He is thinking of doing a podcast; is putting together a small studio in his house and has already got ideas lined up, including stories from his camping adventures and conversations with some of his comedian friends.