AZ Media 11.0: Gambo opens up about his career, his legacy and he takes on his critics

June 29, 2024

The 40-minute interview is nearly over. John Gambadoro sits across from me at a table in his Ahwatukee home, his prepared notes for our interview in front of him.

I have one final question, the answer to which he won’t find in his notes.

What does he believe his professional legacy will be?

He thinks about it for a couple of seconds.

“I hope people remember me for just being good at my job,” he says.

For 23 years Gambadoro — better known as “Gambo,” — has been “the voice” of Valley sports-talk radio, the loud, opinionated, boastful New Yorker who’s yelled into his microphone during afternoon drive time at KGME 1360 AM and, since 2007, at Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

Gambadoro, 53, has been a polarizing figure, his style revered by some and reviled by others. But his impact — and the ratings he gets — is undeniable, as is his success. The Long Island/Brooklyn kid who grew up wanting to be the New York Yankees shortstop, the next Bucky Dent, the kid who didn’t go to college and, in his words, “barely” made it through high school, has done so well that he plans to retire before he turns 60 and become a snowbird, spending winter months in Arizona and summer months in Washington, near the Canadian border.

“I’ve had a great run. I’ve had a really great run,” Gambadoro said.

Gambadoro never planned on being a sports-talk show host. He didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life until one day in high school, at a career day, he walked up to a woman who was representing a weekly newspaper in the area called the Smithtown News. Gambadoro asked her if he could write a story for the newspaper. She said yes, and when he saw his byline in the paper, he decided he wanted to be a sportswriter.

Nine years of covering mostly high school sports for Newsday followed until he moved to the Valley in 1997, ambitious and hopeful he could do something more with his career. After a few months of freelance work, he got call from Tim Liotta, the program director at KGME, asking if he wanted to co-host an afternoon sports-talk show.

“He said, ‘You would be really good at radio,’” Gambadoro recalled. “I was scared. It was new. I didn’t know if I was going to be good at it. I had no experience at radio. I listened to WFAN (a powerhouse New York sports talk station) as a kid growing up but I never thought about doing it. I was a sportswriter. That’s what I knew. That’s the only thing I knew.

“For the first two years, I was scared out of my mind. Here I am, this New York kid trying to talk about sports in Arizona and it took a little while for people to adjust to me, to like me.”

Gambadoro believes he finally started to connect with his listeners when he became a “fan” of the Valley’s sports teams.

“I took the Arizona sports teams as my own,” he said. “I root for them. I have the same passion as the fans. I care just the way they care. I get upset when the teams lose like they get upset. I get happy when the teams win just like they’re happy.”

Those words will make journalists cringe. But Gambadoro’s bosses at Arizona Sports have no problem with their talk-show hosts openly cheering for the Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Suns, Coyotes and Arizona State.

“If you want to accuse us of being homers, by all means, have at it but I think we’ve proven ourselves over and over that’s not the case,” Ryan Hatch, the vice president of content and operations at Bonneville Phoenix, which owns Arizona Sports, told The Athletic last June. “I don’t think it’s fair and I don’t subscribe to that. Now at the same time, I will tell you that they are business partners and we’re rooting for them, always, to do really well.”

Why has Gambadoro become the unlikeliest of success stories, a New York kid making it big in Arizona sports media?

Even those who criticize Gambadoro for the way he does his job will admit he has an insatiable work ethic. Gambadoro said he starts making phone calls to his sources — or, as his New York accent comes through on the air, his “sauces” — when he wakes up at 7:30 a.m. and on days when he goes to games is on his phone constantly until he gets home around 11:30 p.m.

“His work ethic is something to aspire to, to be honest with you,” afternoon co-host Dave Burns said. “He is so devoted to those four hours of the show to the point where, I’ll be candid with you, throughout the years I have asked or begged him to not work as hard as he does. I’ll tell him, ‘Hey, you don’t need to go to that game. You need to turn your phone off for three hours. Give yourself a half-day.’

“But he’s always on the phone, always looking for stories. I’ll get a direct message from him on Twitter at 1 a.m. because he saw something and wants me to know about it when I wake up.”

That approach is reflective of Gambadoro’s early career in newspapers.

“I think I’m different than everybody else because of my reporting background, because I was a newspaper guy,” he said. “Not that I’m better. I think I’m just different than the way anybody else does sports radio.

“I think a lot of people who do sports radio, they watch the games, they read stories, prepare and they go in and do their show. I do it based on being at the games because I think it’s important for me to be at the games. I have a press pass from all these teams. Why wouldn’t I use it? It’s allowed me to make connections over 23 years and those connections have allowed me to … you know, one of the things I’m known for is breaking stories.”

Gambadoro often talks on air about his upbringing, about how he had family members who were connected to the Mafia. What he doesn’t talk about as much is how his childhood also influenced the way he does his job.

“I’m a kid from an immigrant family who grew up with nothing,” he said. “I had no ability to go to college. I was going to be a police officer or a fireman. That’s what I was destined to become. I wasn’t going to have a great career or anything. So I’ve never taken it for granted, even to this day. I still work as hard today as I possibly can because that’s the only way I know how to go. It’s the only way I can do it.

“I can’t cheat the show. To cheat the show is to not watch the game, to not make the calls, to put in a half-ass effort, show up and just try to fake it. Never once I have ever cheated the show.”

Photo: Jennifer Stewart

I ask Gambadoro if he thinks he works harder than anyone else in sports-talk radio.

“I know how hard I work,” he says. “That’s all I can say on that.”

Listen to Gambadoro and Burns from 2-6 p.m. and you might think you’re listening to an old, married couple. Gambadoro is the emotional one, prone to outbursts. Burns is calm and reasoned, trying to pull Gambadoro back in when he goes off on one of his rants.

“I remember many, many years ago when Jeff Bridges won an Academy Award,” Burns said. “He thanked his wife for being the one who holds the kite string in a hurricane. That line always stuck with me. I feel like with Gambo that’s what we are. He’s the hurricane, I’m the one holding the kite string. The fun comes in between the push and pull of the two of us.”

Gambadoro is never at a loss of words in those four hours, even when he’s mangling the English language. But often, what he says — and what he doesn’t say — has subjected him to criticism, both privately and publicly.

In a series of tweets beginning in December 2018, Fox Sports host Jody Oehler lit into Gambadoro, accusing him of being too cozy with the Suns because of a personal friendship with owner Robert Sarver, a relationship that allegedly included the two going on vacation together.

One tweet from Oehler:

“He’s not interested in being honest with his audience, he’s interested in protecting his relationships.”

The Gambadoro-Sarver relationship, and the story that they vacationed together, has been talked about in media circles for years. In our interview, Gambadoro seemed to be waiting for the question.

“I never went on vacation with Robert Sarver,” he said. “I have no idea where that came from. I’ve never been to the guy’s house. I don’t know where he lives. … People want to say stuff like that because they’re just looking for a way to knock me. I like the guy. I hope he does well. But I’m not Larry Fitzgerald. I’ve never been on vacation with the guy.”

Is it jealousy, I ask?

“Partly,” he said. “Most people in the industry don’t criticize me. There’s a couple that might. It could be jealousy. You’d have to ask them. I’ve been successful doing what I’ve done for 23 years.”

If there’s a single element that defines Gambadoro as talk-show host, it’s the stories he breaks, the seemingly incessant need to credit himself on the air and, for some, his unwillingness to admit when he’s wrong.

That, too, might be a reflection of his upbringing. Gambadoro said he’s not close to his father, whom he described as a “hard man” who worked multiple jobs to support his family but wasn’t emotionally close to his children.

“He never hugged me, he never kissed me, he never told me he loved me,” Gambadoro said.

It doesn’t take a degree in psychology to connect the dots; Gambadoro brags about the stories he breaks because it validates him in a way his father never did.

Interestingly, when I tell Gambadoro some find his incessant boasting on the air to be off-putting he responds as if he doesn’t know what I’m talking about.

“I don’t think that I do that,” he said.

Nor does Gambadoro accept the idea that he’s made reporting gaffes on air, despite clear evidence that he has done so.

In the lead-up to the 2018 NFL Draft, Gambadoro said the Cardinals wouldn’t trade up to draft a quarterback. Arizona traded three picks to move up to No. 10 and draft Josh Rosen. Last January, Gambadoro tweeted that the Cardinals would not trade Rosen and take Kyler Murray with the No. 1 pick.

Just moments before the Phoenix Suns made their first-round pick in the 2019 draft Gambadoro tweeted, “Being told the Phoenix Suns will select Donte Divencenzo (sic) with the 16th pick.”

Instead, the Suns traded up to acquire forward Mikal Bridges.

Every journalist has gotten things wrong. Yet Gambadoro insists that’s not what he did.

“My track record is really good at breaking stories,” he said. “There’s only been a couple of times I actually got things wrong. On Donte, the Suns were going to draft him. I had three different teams telling me that. It ended up being wrong because at the last second, they made a trade. People want to criticize me for that, that’s fine. It ended up being incorrect because that’s what they were going to do.

“Nothing I’ve ever done has been blatantly wrong. Everything was going to be correct. Just sometimes things change. But I take a lot of pride in not putting false information out there. … I don’t think I’ve ever had bad information. I think I’ve had information that’s changed.”

Twice over the past 23 years, Gambadoro said, he’s been offered national shows in big markets. He said he turned down both offers because he loves living in the Valley and he didn’t believe he could do a national show as well as he does a show focused on a single market.

“I can do a better job of concentrating on a few teams rather than 32 teams in the NFL,” he said.

By staying in the Valley, he’s become — no matter what his critics say — a sports radio icon.

“A lot of times I’ll have somebody 32 or 33 years old come up to me and say, ‘Man, I used to listen to you with my dad. I’ve been listening to you for 20 years,’” Gambadoro said. “I take a lot of pride in that. That’s great. Somebody who was a kid in junior high is now grown up with kids of their own and is still listening to me.”

As for his legacy, Burns said it best.

“I think he will go down,” Burns said, “as one of the most polarizing media figures if not the most polarizing media figure to ever work in this market. And like it or not, he’s one of the most influential voices in the history of Arizona sports.”

Craig Fouhy’s first job

In our continuing series on the first jobs of Valley media, here’s Channel 15’s Craig Fouhy:

“It was 1998 and I had applied in July with Channel 15 and got hired in September to do Fouhy on Sports commentary. It was interesting. The whole crew there got let go and the general manager at the time said he wanted somebody who’s coached, (they said) ‘I want somebody who’s been in the locker room, I want somebody who’s called timeouts and made decisions.’

“It was funny. The year before I went to every TV station and applied for jobs with a paper resume. And I said TV looked like it would be fun. A year later they called me. I was so nervous for that first commentary. It was one of those where I was sweating. My executive producer at the time said, ‘Hey, I got this idea. You should wear a T-shirt under your shirt in case you do sweat it won’t show through.’

“We were in the old building, south of the airport, and they walked me downstairs and they did that first demo tape and it was crazy. I was just so nervous. It was something local, maybe on the Cardinals or Arizona State football. They ran about 90 seconds to two minutes. Somehow, I got the gig and they gave me a six-month contract with a signing bonus, which was a pittance.

“I was as nervous as all get-out those first few months. I got the East Valley Tribune, the Arizona Republic, USA Today and every morning I’d read all the newspapers because there was really no internet to speak of and then I’d put together my thoughts on some topic.

“Twenty years later I’m still here.”

Arizona Sports still dominant in mornings

Despite changes at Fox Sports 910 AM and the Fanatic 1580 AM, Arizona Sports 98.7 FM still dominated the morning show ratings from Oct. 10 to Nov. 6.

The Doug and Wolf show (Doug Franz, Ron Wolfley) received a 6.6 share for the coveted male 25 to 54 audience. Jody Oehler, who moved from afternoon drive to mornings on Fox Sports 910, got an 0.6 share and the Fanatic 1580, which debuted the Bruce Jacobs/Dale Hellestrae show, did not show up in the ratings book.

Fox Sports 910 has seen its morning share cut in half since moving Oehler to the mornings and the Dan Patrick Show went to KDUS. Patrick’s show had a 1.2 share in September. Since moving to KDUS it’s garnered a 1.5 share, half a point higher than the previous morning show hosted by Hellestrae.

Overall, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., Arizona Sports had a 6.0 share, followed by ESPN 620 (0.8), Fox Sports 910 (0.6) and KDUS (0.6). The Fanatic did not show up in the ratings.

One final radio note: KDUS has added an afternoon show to its lineup. Shawn Crespin, who’s had various radio jobs in the Valley the past 16 years, and former Arizona State defensive back Jordan Simone are co-hosting a show titled “No Bull” from 3-5 p.m. weekdays.

Suns-Coyotes ratings up

The early-season success of the Suns and Coyotes, relatively speaking, has been reflected by higher ratings on Fox Sports Arizona. Suns ratings are up 48 percent, and the Coyotes are up 11 percent. The spike is even higher on the Fox Sports Go app; Suns are up 56 percent and the Coyotes 31 percent.

(Top photo of John Gambadoro: Jennifer Stewart, courtesy Arizona Sports 98.7 FM)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57kG1qbG9kbHxzfJByZmpqX2WCcK3ZZqSenJmWenJ9jGlkoJmdl7xuu8%2BepaxlpaV6oq7OrqtmoJmoeqSt0Z6cq2WYnsBuuMSgmJyxXZa7pXnHnmStmZuawG67zWafoqtdmL%2BqwMicqmg%3D