Gerry Geronimo – Ka Gerry Kabayan

Gerry Geronimo (Adolfo Rueda Geronimo), also known as Ka Gerry, Kabayan, is a radio and television broadcaster. He was born in Santa Cruz, Manila on 5 October 1941. His parents are Elias Geronimo and Concordia P. Rueda. He is married to Zenaida Salvador of Binmaley, Pangasinan, with whom he has two sons. Relatives in broadcast include Estrella Salvador Cleofe, a producer director at MBS 4, the National Media Production Center, and PTV 4, 1976-93; and newscaster Veronica Cleofe Alejar of UNTV Channel 37. He is also related to fictionist, broadcaster, and filmmaker Eli Rueda Guieb III. He finished grade school at Andres Bonifacio Elementary School in Santa Cruz, Manila, 1957, and his secondary education at Manuel L. Quezon High School, 1961. He has a bachelor’s degree in foreign service and political science from the Lyceum of the Philippines University, 1965. He took special studies in broadcasting from the British Broadcasting Corporation, 1966. Geronimo taught English, public speaking, political science, and Philippine history at the Lyceum of the Philippines in 1966 and at St Paul’s College of Manila from 1974 to 1976. He served as sectoral representative for peasants and the fisherfolk in the 10th Philippine Congress from 1996 to 1998.

He was first heard on radio in 1963 as an announcer on DZFM of the Philippine Broadcasting Service. He moved to Radio Veritas in 1968 and to DZEC of the Eagle Broadcasting Corporation in 1969, where he was program manager and news supervisor until 1971. During the martial law period, he anchored news and public affairs shows on the government television station Channel 4 as part of then president Ferdinand Marcos’s New Society initiatives. One of the programs he hosted was Pulong-Pulong sa Kaunlaran (Public Forum for Development), which was simulcast on all other channels, weekdays at six in the evening. In the program, Geronimo delivered his spiels in straight Filipino. From 1974 to 1981, he served as producer and host on GMA Network’s DZBB and on FBS Radio Network’s DWBL, then transferred to ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation’s DZMM in 1988.

He is most popular for Ating Alamin (Let Us Find Out), a school-on-the-air livelihood and entrepreneurship radio and television program, which he has been hosting, directing, and producing since 1974. For 40 years, it continued to tackle technological innovations in agriculture for Filipino entrepreneurs. Geronimo expanded the reach of his educational program by crossing over to other media platforms: publishing AA Gazette, offering livelihood seminars called Gabay sa Kabuhayan (Guide to Livelihood), and producing Salin Kaalaman: Libro sa Video (Knowledge Transfer: Books on Video).

He is publisher and editor of Eumorpho Bodybuilding Magazine, chairman and organizer of Ginoong Eumorpho Amateur Bodybuilding Competition, and former president of the Philippine Combat Aikido Federation. His latest advocacy is Sulong Kabuhayan, an advocacy campaign that promotes local self-reliant entrepreneurship.

For his program Ating Alamin, Geronimo received the NHK Award for Television in 1985, the Hall of Fame Award from the Catholic Mass Media Award in 1986, the Gawad CCP para sa Telebisyon in 1987, the Science Award from the Department of Science and Technology in 1987, and the Anak TV Seal Award in 2011.