Jim Rome facts for kids

James Phillip Rome (born October 14, 1964) is a well-known American sports radio host. His popular talk show, The Jim Rome Show, is shared with many radio stations by Westwood One.

Jim Rome broadcasts his radio show from a studio near Los Angeles, California. He used to host TV shows on ESPN, TSN2 (in Canada), Showtime, and CBS. Since 2024, his show has been available on X (formerly Twitter). He also created a free streaming channel that includes ads.

For several years, Rome hosted a television show called Jim Rome Is Burning on ESPN in the United States and TSN2 in Canada. In 2011, he left ESPN to join the CBS network. There, he hosted his own show and an interview show on the Showtime channel. He also hosted other sports discussion shows like Talk2 (on ESPN2), The FX Sports Show (on FX), and The Last Word (on Fox Sports Net). The Jim Rome Show is one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the U.S.

From April 2012 to March 2015, Jim Rome had a TV sports talk show called Rome on CBS Sports Network. During this time, he also had a monthly sports and entertainment talk show on Showtime called Jim Rome on Showtime.

About Jim Rome

Jim Rome was born in Los Angeles, California. He finished Calabasas High School in 1982. In 1987, he earned a degree in Communications from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He lives in Irvine, California, with his wife, Janet, and their two sons, Jake and Logan.

Jim Rome's Broadcasting Journey

Early Radio Days

Jim Rome started his radio career at his college radio station, KCSB-FM, while at UCSB. He was the sports director there for a short time. He also worked at KTMS, a news station in Santa Barbara. He began as a traffic reporter and then became a sports talk host in the summer of 1987.

In late 1990, he moved to XTRA Sports 690 in San Diego. This is where he started The Jim Rome Show, also known as "The Jungle." The show's signature music includes parts of Iggy Pop's song "Lust for Life" and Guns N' Roses' song "Welcome to the Jungle".

Growing the Show

In spring 1994, the show's production moved to a studio in downtown Los Angeles. However, it was still broadcast by XTRA San Diego. At the same time, the show's start time changed to 9 AM Pacific/12 PM Eastern. This time slot stayed the same until the end of 2024.

In 1996, the program began to be shared with many stations through Premiere Radio Networks. This included ESPN Radio stations. A new agreement in January 2013 brought the show to the CBS Sports Radio network. This network broadcast the show on its local radio stations, its SiriusXM satellite channel (now called Infinity Sports), and its cable TV channel.

As of February 2024, CBS Sports stopped showing the TV version of the program. Now, the video feed is a joint project with the X/Twitter platform. It is also available on other streaming services.

Recent Changes to the Show

Starting in January 2025, The Jim Rome Show moved to a new time slot: 3-6 PM Eastern/12-3 PM Pacific. Many local stations and the Infinity Sports channel on Sirius chose to keep their old shows in that time. Because of this, they no longer carry the Rome show. The show is now available on about 60 local stations and is focusing on reaching listeners through its streaming platforms.

The radio show used to be heard on over 200 stations in the United States and Canada. It had about 2.5 million listeners. In 1998, Rome released an album called Welcome to the Jungle. It featured memorable sound bites and music from his show.

In early 2003, Jim Rome was interviewing Mark Shapiro, an executive producer at ESPN. During the interview, they started talking about Rome possibly returning to ESPN. Within a few months, Rome was officially hired again to host Rome Is Burning. Rome says that this interview was the reason he returned to television.

Celebrity Appearances

Jim Rome has made small appearances in movies like Space Jam, Two for the Money, and the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard. He also appeared in Blink-182's music video "What's My Age Again?" and on the HBO TV show Arliss.

Rome was made fun of in the South Park episode "Sarcastaball". An incident involving Jim Everett was also parodied in the episode "The ... Word".

On May 3, 2004, Rome hosted the memorial service for Pat Tillman. On January 28, 2006, Jim Rome was chosen to be part of the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

The movie Any Given Sunday, directed by Oliver Stone, features a sports announcer named "Jack Rose." This character, played by John C. McGinley, is based on Jim Rome.

Horse Racing Interest

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Racing colors of Jim Rome's Jungle Racing, LLC

For some years, Jim Rome used to joke about horse racing, saying it was "not a sport, it's a bet." However, he became more interested after interviewing Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux many times on his radio show. Rome then became more interested in buying Thoroughbred horses.

He first became a part-owner in a horse named Wing Forward. In his first race in North America, Wing Forward made an amazing comeback from last place to win. Rome called it "one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had." In 2008, Jim and his wife Janet bought a share in a two-year-old colt. This gave them a chance to compete in the Triple Crown races in 2009. Listeners suggested names for the horse, who was eventually named Gallatin's Run.

By 2012, Rome owned parts of 14 horses through different partnerships, including his own stable, Jungle Racing, LLC. The first horse to get national attention was Mizdirection, a filly who won the 2012 and 2013 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint. Rome described winning the Breeder's Cup as "absolutely awesome." He bought a share in Mizdirection for $50,000 in 2010. She won 11 out of 17 races and earned over $1.7 million before she retired. She was usually ridden by jockey Mike Smith. After her 2014 Breeders' Cup win, Mizdirection was sold for $2.7 million and retired to become a broodmare (a horse used for breeding).

Rome's next important race horse was Shared Belief. This gelding (a male horse that cannot breed) was named the best two-year-old male horse in 2013. As a three-year-old, he kept winning. By the end of 2014, he had won eight out of nine races and earned over $2 million. Mike Smith was also his regular rider. As a four-year-old, Shared Belief beat 2014 Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome in their first race of the season. Then, Shared Belief won the Santa Anita Handicap easily.