There's only one Jim Rome... and he's never cared if you love him or hate him because he knows if you have a take and don't suck, he “can still go hard.” Things are bound to get wild when The Jungle meets South Beach Sessions. Dan and Jim get together in Los Angeles to reflect on Jim's career as a pioneering game changer in a way he hasn't talked publicly about before. Jim gets personal, talking about what it was like growing up as a try-hard sports nerd and getting his start in radio, then realizing he wouldn’t ever want to do anything else. He also opens up about keeping true to his blunt and honest voice from the very beginning, the cost and regrets of being in the brutal business for decades (and the people he's pissed off along the way), and why his longtime audience is as loyal as they come. Watch Jim Rome's "The Jungle" LIVE daily on X from 9AM to 1PM PT / 12PM - 4PM ET and look for his FAST channel across streaming platforms including Amazon FreeVee, Plex, and Samsung TV Plus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What insights does Jim Rome share about his career?
Kings Network. Welcome to South Beach Sessions. I'm excited about this one because this isn't in South Beach. This is on this man's turf. This man has run LA, a conqueror, for a long time and I admire him for a number of reasons and I'm moved that he would make the time in this setting for a couple of reasons.
One, he braved two hours worth of traffic at the end of a bad and difficult work week, but more importantly, I've never seen you do much of this. I read the research notes and I'm like, Jim Rome has been in front of me for 30 years and nobody knows shit about the actual real Jim Rome.
Like they know the radio character, which is probably your real character turned up a few notches, but I'm not sure anyone knows you. So thank you because, you know, I like to interview and I'm imagining that, you know, I'm a pretty good interviewer. So you're allowing yourself to be seen.
Yeah, no, I appreciate this. I think you're right. Now, I'm not an L.A. guy technically. I'm an L.A. native, grew up in Los Angeles, got the big break in San Diego, and then came back to L.A. I've lived in Orange County for about 25 years now, so that's why I had to brave the element. But you know what? For this opportunity, for this place, happy to do it.
Happy for the invite, and I appreciate you, dude. Appreciate you.
Thank you. Why is it that people might be able to argue they don't really know you after listening to you for four hours a day every day for 30 years?
i i think that they do know me listen here's the thing i i think that there was this misnomer that on the way up well first of all if we backtrack i've done this a very long time so on the way up there was this notion of man that's a bad guy that's a bad guy he's that he's this he's the other and i can remember when i first got into it and keep in mind this was way back before there was the internet there was social media
And my family and friends would see this and they would see people either really love me or really want to fight me and they would say great offense. I'm like, hey, listen, this is what we signed up for. This is the way this is going to go. This is a show. This is the way I really am for better or for worse. However, I understand that I need to give them a show. It's got to be authentic.
It's got to be real. I'm not talking out my ass. But I'll tell you what I don't do. I don't come home and talk smack to my wife. I'm not on 24 and 7. I understand the job. So do they really know me? I think if you listen to me every single day in the car for 30 years and radio is such a one-on-one medium, of course they think they know me. But do you really, really know me?
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Chapter 2: Why do listeners feel they don't truly know Jim Rome?
I'd like to find out a little bit about that because to pioneer for as long as you have, and I associate you with all of California and associate discovering you with, oh, I haven't heard anything like this before. And then what I grew to admire. Do people really understand how hard as a solo voice it is to develop an audience? And I don't mean an audience. Yes, you can gather a crowd.
I mean an audience that would ride with him anywhere because they connect in this space, which is different than all the other spaces.
Yeah, no, I think you understand that. What you do, and I admire that a lot, what you do is different than what I do. I've always been, like I'm the last of the Mohicans in the sense that I'm still a single voice. I'm still a single host-driven program, and not because I have some kind of ego or because I need, hey, believe me, I would love to get away from me. I kind of get sick of me.
I would love to get away from me, but this is kind of the way I've always done it. Now, that doesn't mean it's the way I'm always going to do it, but this is the way I came up. To your point about the audience, Like your show, for instance, you have an ensemble. You have lots of people around you. My ensemble is actually the audience.
I have this culture and I have this ride and die audience with me. Not everybody loves me, but they listen. But I'm telling you, one of the most gratifying things of all is Dude, I've got guys that have been with me 30 years. I mean, 30 years. I can document this. When I first started in local radio in San Diego, they started to call and they're still calling.
Now, on the one hand, from a business standpoint, you don't want to age out that way. I need to find a younger audience, which is part of the reason why I made the move into streaming and fast channels and things like that. But it's, how do you maintain an audience like that? I have a lot of pride in the fact that you have to earn their trust and get them to come back every single day.
And man, they're rabid. They're rabid.
But you have to be an unusual kind of conqueror to still be thinking that you have to win every day now to get a young audience. You don't have to do any of that. You could very easily.
could have stopped doing any of it 10 years ago and uh or you couldn't not really well not the way you're built both yeah exactly exactly i i don't want to stop doing it because here's my thing i'm not one of those guys who's like that athlete that man they're gonna rip that jersey off my back i'm not they're gonna have to rip that jersey off my back if you were the guy if you were the grim reaper and you came to me today and said hey yo rome you've had a pretty good run but
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Chapter 3: How has Jim Rome maintained his loyal audience?
So to answer your question, well, then why are you still doing it? Because it's hard. It's hard. I like it. I want to see where I still fit in. I want to see how do I still win. I want to see how can I solve this particular puzzle. Yeah, you were the guy. You were one of the first ones in. You got really lucky with timing. But now it's hard, man. Now everybody who's got... This has got to show.
Now I'm competing with everybody in the world. You know, back in the day when you first heard about me, there weren't very many of us doing it. I had a pretty captive audience. Now I'm in a firefight to be seen and heard. And how do I do that without compromising who I am? And how do I reinvent and evolve? It's still really interesting to me. And I still love the grind. And you know what?
Frankly, I still want it. I love it. There are people that rely on me that work for me. And I still want to set an example for my kids. And I want them to be proud of me. And I want my friends to be proud of me, too. And I want to be proud of me. And I have something to prove to myself.
I want to talk to you about that. And I want to talk to you about it being hard. But before I do that, this need to compete at this level on the hard things that has been inside of you for, I'm guessing, 40 years, longer, where does it come from?
It's a good question. I've thought about this a lot. I don't know. I always had, I just knew, man. I had something, I had a chip on my shoulder from a very early age. So where did that come from? I don't know. I've never really sat in therapy, but probably not one of the cool kids in school. Maybe didn't get the girl. Maybe, I don't know. I don't know.
Like my father, and I know you're really good on family. My father was a Boston guy who... who had a small business, worked very hard, and he and I would talk, and not always connect, loved him, but didn't always connect, but he would say to me, man, you should really relax. I don't know how to tell you how to relax, but this drive, like, I don't really get it. And he worked hard.
So I don't even know why he would say things like that, but he would say, I don't get it, but you didn't get it from me. So I don't know what it was. I just knew that I was kind of neurotic and kind of psychotic and knew exactly what it was that I wanted and was paranoid that I wasn't going to get it. So I was willing to pay a price.
I negotiated with myself early on that I was willing to do whatever it took to get it without being immoral or unethical, but I would go the extra mile and it didn't seem like work, it was more painful for me not to do it than to actually do it. In other words, I went to UC Santa Barbara, I would do internships where I'd get up at four o'clock in the morning. Everybody else is just,
Can we curse on this one?
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Chapter 4: What drives Jim Rome's relentless work ethic?
Shit can. You know, like it was a party school and I got mine, but it was a party school. But I had no qualms about getting up at four o'clock to work for free before morning classes. And in fact, was terrified that if I didn't do it, somebody else would. And then when I did do it, man, it was like a drug. I'm like, wow. I'm getting ahead. I'm winning. I'm feeding that thing.
And I just had that chip, and I just wanted it.
I just wanted it. I've got more questions here because I want to explore this with you. When you came in, you and I don't know each other, and I simply know based on what it is that we do, this person must be a maniac. Like there's simply no way that his show remains as good as he is when he is –
Doing the same show for four hours by himself doing the same thing the same sledgehammer that that that because he wants to win. There's no way that this person can be a sane person who is not a bit lopsided because he's been working in solitary confinement crushing everybody for 30 years and it's him his computer his talent. and four hours is a long time, dude.
Like, by yourself, I couldn't do it. I did it for a little while at the beginning of my career, and I got stamina for this stuff. And three hours by myself? No thank you.
Okay, to be fair, to be fair, it's not by myself. I mean, I'm on the air by myself, but I've always been extremely well-produced. I have a good staff. I don't have an enormous staff, but I've always had kind of, like, elite fans. fighting warriors like you. There's a culture to it. There's a culture to it. And there's a whole side conversation about how the world has changed. You know what I mean?
But I've always, we go hard. We go hard. So it's not, it's four hours now, but when I first started, it was five hours. It was 7 p.m. to 12 midnight. And you can't even imagine the tweakers and the kooks and the nuts that would call me at night, man. That was wild. But that was my first big break. So I was on for five hours.
And you don't rate at night because you get preempted by games and nobody's listening at night. And this was on a radio station in San Diego. And then the first ratings book came back. And there was nobody rated at night. And I had like this huge number. huge number that wiped out everybody. And everybody was like, holy crap, what's going on here?
So they quickly moved me to a day part, four hours from five to four hours. And then everybody said, never work during the day, man. That guy, what he does at night will never work during the day. And it worked during the day. And then he started building the thing out. So I went five hours to four hours to three hours. I'm like, man, I got this thing wired.
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Chapter 5: How did Jim Rome navigate early challenges in his career?
when I get down to the Rome minute I want to be paid the same amount of money that I'm getting for the three hours but I stalled out at three and now I'm back up to four so that's a long answer to I haven't always done four but I did three for a long time but I've always been well produced and had a good crew around me and I work hard
I'm talking about the maniac part of it. So, yes, you're not alone on air because there are a lot of people behind the scenes. But on air, you're alone. And well-produced or not, I'm telling you that as someone who does some of this with an ensemble, I've worked in construction. I've done physical labor things. There is nothing as tiring as those four hours that I've ever done on any –
Stamina level, there's not anything I've done that makes you as tired as what that is.
Dude, have you never had a cup of coffee? Do you... I mean, we have some help, and I do it legitimately. Listen, like you did construction, right? So you understand, we understand how lucky we are to do this. See, that's the other thing, man. People... Okay, here's what people don't get about me. Maybe now I've kind of... My whole thing's funny, right? I was the jerk. I'll never forget.
There was an article written about me in LA Magazine years and years ago. I was kind of naive, and this guy pitched it like, yeah, I just want to hang out in Rome. I want to follow Rome around. And this was when I was on my way up, and things were happening fast, spinning fast.
And I'm with this guy, and I'm hanging out with this guy, and we do this whole interview, and I let him follow me around for three days. And I'm like, that went pretty well. And then I open up the article, and the headline just screams, the jerk. And then it was pretty clear that not everybody likes me very much.
The funny thing is now that I'm at this point in my life, now I'm just kind of the OG. And now I'm not that guy that everybody hates because they've moved on to other things.
And where you push the edge, people are now, like not that it wasn't plenty edgy the way that it was, but you don't get in trouble. You're not a shock jock. Nor are you doing takes to get aggregated. So it's not like there's only so far. far you can keep pushing the edge.
Yeah, you're right. Well, exactly. Well, okay. But like, just as you probably pivoted, I'll get back, I'll get back to the construction angle in a minute. But just as you pivoted, probably at some point, I could do that. I could go there. Like, I'm pretty cognizant of the landscape, which is why I went off of linear cable and try to take this shot. And I'm not, I love this.
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Chapter 6: What personal sacrifices has Jim Rome made for his career?
I was busting my ass doing that show, that hard thing you were talking about, but I was not changing and recognizing that the world had changed. I had kids that didn't even watch TV. They never watched TV. I mean, that was their TV. So we did that. And yeah, I ultimately made that thing. But the point about I'm not saying things to say things, I'm not aggregating. No, you're right.
I'm not doing that. Now, I could. I could. But the thing is, I want to sleep well at night. I want to look in the mirror. I want to respect myself. My thing always was, have a take, don't suck. Have a take, don't suck. My thing was never, hey, you know what?
Say something that you don't really believe that you know will get you viral reaction and clicks and people will talk about you and you will provoke and you will incite. I just wanted to say things that were on my mind that I meant that I could defend and that I could back up and elevate a conversation. So I still do what I've always done. But I recognize what's going on out there.
And by the way, I'm not judging. That works for people. That works for people. That's just not the way I do it. And really quickly, back to construction.
You're grateful for this job we get to do.
Yes, thank you. This is why one of the reasons I go hard and have always gone hard, I did get out of the business for a minute. And it went badly, badly. I went in, I had a bad experience my senior year in high school or in college where I worked for a radio station for nine months for free, happy to do it. And then the news director says to me, I got good news for you, son.
We got you a paying job. And I'm like, man, Not only am I on a commercial radio station, not the college station, but a commercial station paid. Hell yes. My time. He goes, all you have to do is cut a demo tape, play it for the owner. He signs off and we are gold, baby. I'm like, you got it. I knock out this tape. I give it to the owner.
And the owner goes back to the news director, my boss, and goes, I hate this kid. I hate him. He's not on my station. And I'm like, I already am on your station for free once a week. And I'm like, that's a bad experience. I can't control my destiny. I don't like that because I have a family business to fall back on. So I go to my same father. I'm like, hey, dad, I'm going to come to work for you.
And he looks at me and he says, hey, son, the hell you are. I'm like, what? He's like, you're not working here. I'm like, what father doesn't want their son to be a legacy and follow in their footsteps? He said, me. You never once expressed any interest in this business. You cannot work here. I'm like, wow. because I was young and dumb. I just, I'm like big house, nice car, president.
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Chapter 7: How does Jim Rome view competition and personal growth?
So it was that thing that you might have done construction. I tried to go into sales. I was terrible at that. I have had an immense gratitude for all of this ever since.
you're like me too, probably can't do much of anything else. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Who knows that I can even do this, but yes.
But you've been sculpting this thing like a maniac for 40 years. So it's been in the business, but you were dreaming of this before then, right? And you were a lunatic in high school and college.
Pretty much. I was always a try hard. I was never exceptional at anything except effort. except effort. The only advantage I had, here's my advantage, I knew that I had no advantages. And don't get me wrong, I was an upper middle class kid, suburban kid from the valley in Los Angeles, from a family that owned a small business. I did not come up through the mud. Let's be real.
But what I did understand was that there was nothing significant about me. I knew nobody in the business, really. I knew one person. I knew nobody in the business. I did not play the game beyond tennis in high school. I never thought that I had a good voice or a good look. I didn't think that I was really physically imposing. Nothing special.
about you nothing nothing you don't think anything as an entertainer a broadcasting talent there is nothing special about nothing but but i was alert so i got to school and i went to the radio station and i started to work and compete and i would see my peers and i'm like holy crap that dude is way better than me that guy is way better than me that gal is way sharper than me whoa whoa whoa whoa
this is your obsession, but if you can't beat the people in your own room, I did the math. I wasn't even a J school. I went to a UC school, which is just theory. Like there was no TV station there. I'm like, if everybody else around the nation has the same dream on their various campuses and everybody in the workplace, they're not giving back their jobs. the hell are you going to make it?
Why you? Why you?
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Chapter 8: What lessons has Jim Rome learned from his father?
I think at this point I'm sort of creative because I'm starting to formulate in my mind, hey, here's my thing. I figured this out. how are you going to get a job? How are you going to get a show? Why you? Why you? Why you? And initially, I could not answer that. But at the same time, I was formulating content ideas. Like, well, what if you did get a show? What would you do?
What would that show be? So I had to figure out the first thing. It was kind of like a three-pronged thing. I was working on my mindset because I knew it was a brutal, brutal business with a lot of rejection. I thought that was the only edge I could get if I was like... if I had more grind, if I wanted it worse. I worked on my mind. I worked on the answer of how are you going to get a show?
And then I worked on what would the show be? And I was already tracking all these things from the second I walked into the dormitory my freshman year of college. That much I knew. Because dude, you know what I wanted to be? I wanted to be a pro athlete. And incredibly enough, I figured that out in Little League. Not long thereafter, that was never gonna happen. So how do you stay in sports?
I'm like you, like dude, we were obsessed with sports.
I never fit in in high school. I was just trying not to stand out in any particular way. And a teacher told me I was good at writing. I don't know if this is true for you or not, but were you standing out being a bit of a loud mouth or being a bit, were you yappy or a lot of bravado or were you?
Not the bravado, maybe a bit of a mouth, but definitely a nerd who wore it on his chest. Like I was the guy that went to high school. It was kind of a weird thing. Growing up in LA, I had three heroes, three sports heroes as an LA sports kid. And I got my love of sports from my Boston father. My first idol in the world. I'm dating myself now. I'm old enough to be your pop almost.
Gail Goodrich of the LA Lakers was my idol, my first idol. My second idol, almost simultaneously, was Terry Bradshaw because that was the Stewards Run, 75, 76. My first real recollection of a sporting event where I just got hooked was the Immaculate Reception, 1972. So I'm a Laker fan, I'm a Steeler fan, and I'm an LA Dodger fan. So I was obsessed.
So I was the guy that would wear the Steeler gear on Fridays, and everybody at school would be like, hey, Rome, you suck, you suck. And I'd catch a lot of heat on Mondays when they lost. Like weird stuff. Like, I mean, I'm so lame now, but I didn't want to go to school because I knew the abuse I was going to take, but I wore it on the sleeve. So kind of a nerd with kind of a mouth.
Not one of the cool kids, but man, I didn't try to hide it. I was obsessed with sports.
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