im Rome taunts quarterback _ James Phillip Rome (born on October 14, 1964), known as Jim Rome, is an American sports radio talk show host syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications.

Broadcasting from a studio near Los Angeles, California, Rome hosts The Jim Rome Show on radio as well as the television show Jim Rome Is Burning (formerly Rome Is Burning), which airs on ESPN in the United States and TSN2 in Canada. His past hosting jobs included sports discussion television shows Talk2 (ESPN2), The FX Sports Show (FX), and The Last Word (Fox Sports Net). The Jim Rome Show is tied for the #21 most listened to talk radio show in the United States and Rome is the #29 most influential talk radio personality according to Talkers Magazine.


Born in Tarzana, California, Rome graduated from Calabasas High School in 1982 and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) with a degree in Communications in 1987. He lives in Irvine, California with his wife Janet and their two children.

Early broadcasting start

Rome started his radio career at college radio station KCSB-FM while at UCSB, where he was Sports Director for one quarter, and at news station KTMS, also located in Santa Barbara. He eventually moved to XTRA Sports 690 in San Diego, where he started what is now known as The Jim Rome Show, or "The Jungle," with a loop of the instrumental intro of Iggy Pop's song "Lust for Life" and the instrumental intro of Guns N' Roses' song "Welcome to the Jungle" as the show's signature music. The show became syndicated in 1996. It can now be heard on over 200 radio stations across the United States and Canada. In 1998, Rome released an album entitled Welcome to the Jungle, which featured memorable sound bites and music from the show.

In early 2003, Rome was interviewing friend Mark Shapiro, executive producer of programming and production at ESPN, on his radio program. Unexpectedly, the two began to discuss a possible return for Jim to ESPN, and within a few months, Jim was officially rehired to host Rome Is Burning. Jim openly attributes that interview as the impetus to his return to television.

In July 2006, Rome announced that his nationally syndicated radio show would remain on terrestrial radio instead of going to satellite radio. The radio show is heard on more than 200 stations across the United States and Canada and has an audience of approximately 2.5 million.

Rome gained notoriety for an incident in his ESPN2 show Talk2 in 1994 when his guest was NFL quarterback Jim Everett. Rome had previously referred to Everett as "Chris" (after Chris Evert, the female tennis player), suggesting that Everett shied away from getting hit. Appearing as a guest on the show, Everett warned Rome about repeating the insult. Rome continued his taunt, causing Everett to overturn the table between them and shove Rome to the floor while still on the air. This situation never resulted in a lawsuit for either party. Rome considers this event one of his early career mistakes.

In 1997, hockey legend Gordie Howe announced an attempt to play a shift with the International Hockey League's Detroit Vipers, which would allow Howe to claim having played professional hockey in six decades. Rome challenged the 69-year-old ex-hockey star, offering a bounty of $3,000 to any player on the team playing against the Vipers to take Howe out of the game permanently by saying, "Putting this old fool back to reality." Howe and his wife threatened Rome with a lawsuit, and the bounty went away.

source: radarchronicle