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Jim Rome (b. October 14, 1964) is an American sports radio talk show host syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, the programming subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications. Broadcasting from a studio near Los Angeles, he hosts The Jim Rome Show weekdays from 9 AM to 12 noon Pacific Time. He also hosts the TV show Jim Rome is Burning (formerly Rome is Burning) which airs on ESPN. His past hosting jobs included sports discussion shows Talk2 (ESPN2) and The Last Word (Fox Sports Net).
Rome achieved notoriety for an incident on his ESPN2 show in 1994 when he repeatedly called NFL quarterback Jim Everett "Chris" (after Chris Evert, the female tennis player), from the argument that Everett shied away from getting hit. After fair warning, Everett physically attacked Rome while still on the air, overturning a table and knocking Rome to the floor. (Video of "The Incident") Years later, many believe the incident was actually staged, however Rome has remained silent on the issue.
Rome also caused controversy when, in 1997, he challenged 69-year-old ex-hockey star Gordie Howe's plans to play a shift with the IHL's Detroit Vipers, which would have given "Mr. Hockey" the claim of having played professional hockey in six decades. Rome offered a bounty of $3,000 to any player on the team playing against the Vipers to take Howe out of the game permanently. Howe and his wife threatened Rome with a lawsuit, and the bounty went away.
His current radio show takes calls from listeners and features interviews of notable people from the sports world. His TV show primarily features interviews with athletes and other people associated with sports, but his main influence both started and remains with sports talk radio.
A graduate from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1987, Rome started his radio career at KTMS, 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" (after "Welcome to the Jungle", the Guns N' Roses hit that opens some segments of the program). The show became syndicated in 1996. It can now be heard on over 200 radio stations across the United States and Canada.