[7][9] 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, where he began as a traffic reporter and became a sports talk host in summer 1987.
[10] At the end of 1990, he 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's production moved to a studio in downtown Los Angeles in spring 1994, though the broadcast was still originated by XTRA San Diego.
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.
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.
[8] In 1998, Rome released an album entitled Welcome to the Jungle, which featured memorable sound bites and music from the show.
Rome gained notoriety in 1994 for an incident on his ESPN2 television show, Talk2, when his guest was NFL quarterback Jim Everett.
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."
"[13] On January 1, 2015, Rome sent out a tweet that stated, "Is there anyone not in a marching band who thinks those dorks running around with their instruments are cool?"
[14] Rome made cameo appearances in the movies Space Jam, Two for the Money, and the 2005 remake of The Longest Yard.
[17] The Oliver Stone film Any Given Sunday features John C. McGinley playing the brash sportscaster "Jack Rose," a character based on Jim Rome.
He first became a part owner in Wing Forward, who, in his North American debut, made a dramatic last-to-first comeback to win the race.
[20] The first to gain national attention was the winner of the 2012 and 2013 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, a filly named Mizdirection.
[23] Rome's next significant race horse was Shared Belief, a gelding by Candy Ride, named the Eclipse Award winner in the two-year-old male division for 2013.