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Thursday, April 21, 2016

Mario Gomez & others to leave KHOU 11


UPDATE JULY 31, 2016
Mario Gomez's last KHOU 11 weathercast tonight

KHOU 11 weekend meteorologist Mario Gomez and other station staffers apparently taking TEGNA buyout

Mario Gomez
Mario Gomez
KHOU 11 anchor Shern-Min Chow broke the news about more station staffers apparently taking the TEGNA buyout. By now you know about reporter Doug Miller, but now we learn weekend meteorologist Mario Gomez and others are on the list too.

Here is what Chow wrote on Facebook:

Farewell salute to 7 KHOU staffers, (l to r) Mario Gomez KHOU, Sports photographer George Jensen (Alice C Jensen), Master control operator Gary Makowsky, (not retiring! MC Greg Hurst KHOU) Chief photographer Tony Delgado, Assignment Editor Bill Langlois, (not retiring! GM Susan McEldoon) political reporter Doug Miller, and Photographer Gustavo Pereyra. They leave with 240 years combined experience. You are looking at News History.

Main anchor Greg Hurst is in the below photo, but Chow points out he was just hosting this send off event. KHOU 11 General Manager Susan McEldoon is also not retiring, but pictured according to Chow.

Gomez has been at the station for decades. Here's a channel 11 weathercast Gomez did on 12/22/1989 with the late Sylvan Rodriguez.

I've always enjoyed watching Gomez deliver the weather.

He has a nice and calming presence that is becoming a rare commodity in a business that seems to more and more embrace dramatic deliveries. That's a plus in a place like Houston where the weather can turn against us in a moment's notice (Remember earlier this week?). Gomez could always deftly navigate us through the bad stuff without freaking television viewers out.

According to his bio, the San Antonio native has lived in Houston since 1984. Other than that, we only get a glimpse of his past. His bio for many years has read:

Gomez graduated with a degree in meteorology from the University of Colorado. He served as an air weather officer in the United States Air Force and worked for the National Weather Service in Denver, Colorado. Gomez is a member of the American Meteorological Association and the National Weather Association. He maintains Television Seals of Approval in both organizations.
He is the father of three and participates in many of Houston's charitable events. Gomez served as host of the first annual Houston SPCA telethon in 1995 which raised more than $100,000.

I've never personally met Gomez, but I imagine this is a low key bio for a low key guy. We'll miss you Mario.

I reached out to Gomez earlier. If/when he gets back to me, I'll post his responses here.


UPDATE JULY 31, 2016
Mario Gomez's last KHOU 11 weathercast tonight



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