Editing Jim Rome (section)

== Broadcasting career ==
{{update-section|date=December 2019}}
Rome started his radio [[career]] at [[Campus radio|college radio station]] [[KCSB-FM]] while at UCSB, where he was sports director for one quarter, and at [[All-news radio|news station]] KTMS, also located in [[Santa Barbara, California|Santa Barbara]], where he began as a traffic reporter and became a sports talk host in summer 1987.<ref name="sdut">{{cite news |last1=Freeman |first1=John |title=He's Huuuge! Fans fall for Rome, big time |work=San Diego Union-Tribune |date=April 23, 1993}}</ref> At the end of 1990, he moved to XTRA Sports 690 in [[San Diego, California|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 (Iggy Pop 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's production moved to a studio in downtown Los Angeles in spring 1994, though the broadcast was still originated by XTRA San Diego. At the same time as the studio move, the show start time shifted to 9am Pacific/12pm Eastern, where it remained until the end of 2024. The program was [[radio syndication|syndicated]] in 1996 through [[Premiere Radio Networks]], which sold it to an assortment of local stations including [[ESPN Radio]] affiliates. A new contract that took effect in January 2013 brought the program to the [[CBS Sports Radio]] network, which simulcasted the program on its local FM/AM stations, its [[SiriusXM]] satellite channel (now known as Infinity Sports), and its cable TV channel. As of February 2024 the television version of the program was dropped by CBS Sports. The video feed is now marketed as a co-production with the [[Twitter|X/Twitter]] platform and is also available on various other streaming services.

Beginning with the first new show of 2025 in January, the show moved to the 3-6 pm Eastern/12-3 pm Pacific timeslot. Many local stations and the Infinity Sports channel on Sirius chose to retain their pre-existing shows in that timeslot and no longer carry the Rome show, which is currently available on [https://jimrome.com/stations/ only 60 local affiliates] and is seeking listeners on its streaming platforms instead.

Over time, the show's production facility moved to the Premiere Radio building in [[Sherman Oaks]], then an undisclosed Orange County location, and finally, as part of the start of TV simulcasting in January 2018, a custom-built studio in [[Costa Mesa]]. Due to past incidents of overzealous fans trespassing at the studio, the exact addresses of the former and current Orange County studios are not publicized. To provide continuity across the show's eras in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange County, it is consistently referred to as originating from "Southern California." In 2005, the TV versions of the show were criticized for obscuring the studio's location by using the "Southern California" terminology and footage of the downtown Los Angeles skyline despite originating almost 40 miles away in the Costa Mesa area.

The radio show was formerly heard on more than 200 stations across the United States and Canada and had an audience of approximately 2.5 million.<ref name="AskMen"/> 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 (media executive)|Mark Shapiro]], executive producer of programming and production at ESPN, on his radio program. Unexpectedly, the two began to discuss a possible return of Rome to ESPN, and within a few months, Rome was officially rehired to host ''Rome Is Burning.'' Rome  openly attributes that interview as the impetus to his return to television.