"You have so many good stories, you should write a book!" If Glenn LaPoint '16 had heard that once, he'd heard it a thousand times.
Central New Yorkers know him as Glenn "Gomez" Adams thanks to his 40-plus year career in the media, including the last 31 years at radio station TK-99 where he hosts the morning show, "Gomez and Company." He's also a stand-up comic with countless stories from that part of his life to share as well.
The process of compiling all of his stories began in 2020. "It was during Covid and I had a lot of extra time. I started writing out stories by pen. I was cleaning out some audio folders in our system, I would see an old bit, realize I had forgotten about it, and jot it down. I'd tell a friend I was writing a book, and they would say, 'Hey... did you talk about this story?' I would realize I had forgotten that one, so I would jot it down."
He eventually typed the handwritten stories into his computer, printed them out, and put them into different piles on his dining room table. In March of 2025, he began working with a publishing company. And in October, his book titled, You're Caller Number 7, Please Try Again, was released.
Though the title comes from a familiar radio contest phrase, the book covers far more than broadcast life. Readers meet characters such as Pickles, a comedy-club promoter who once paid Gomez and a fellow comic in actual pickles. There’s also the ill-fated day he lost his phone, won $220 at a casino to replace it, handed the cash to a friend for safekeeping, and later learned the friend had spent it on Engelbert Humperdinck concert tickets.
"The book is really a collection of stories. It's like a road trip. You're going from point A to point B, but sometimes the fun is the side trips you take along the road. I didn't want this to be an 'inside radio' book. Hopefully, even if you don't know me or Syracuse or the radio, if you just pick it up at a bookstore in Omaha, you'll find the book entertaining and funny."
On November 20, Gomez held a book signing at the Wildcat Sports Pub in Camillus. "You write a book and worry no one is ever going to read it or buy it, and you'll have boxes and boxes of them to give away on Halloween. But, it was humbling the number of people who came out - high school friends (he's a 1978 graduate of Marcellus High School and the class Valedictorian), listeners, co-workers. It's very gratifying to see it done - my book, my words, my pictures."
Gomez has so many stories, he's working on a second book which will be titled, "You're Caller #8, Please Try Again." In the meantime, he has book signings coming up at the Barnes & Noble on Route 31 in Clay, at a Syracuse Crunch hockey game, and at the Syracuse Airport. His book can also be found at the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, NY, and is one of the newest books in Onondaga Community College's Coulter Library - a proud addition for alumnus Glenn LaPoint '16.
