Welcome to The Brickhouse! We are a community of passionate sports enthusiasts that are dedicated to the open discussion of all Sports topics. We are highly influenced by our friend JT the Brick (John Tournour), a sports radio personality out of Los Angeles, California.
JT got his start while calling into sports radio talk shows where he earned respect from sports radio talents such as Jim Rome. In 1995 JT won a sports "Smack Off" Championship hosted by Rome and quickly was offered a job as a sports talk show host. He has been in the business now for close to 12 years. He is now affiliated with FOX Sports Radio as well as a columnist for Msnbc Sports. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3035015/
JT: The Hardest Working Man in Sports, from Jan. 2006
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KMAX/Los Angeles, KFMB/San Diego, SportsFan Radio Network, Fox Sports Radio
1. How did you go from being a caller (andJim Rome Smack-Offchamp) to a host in your own right- how did you make that leap? And how hard was it to leave your prior career as a stockbroker behind?
After retiring as a caller, I landed my first show on KMAX/Pasadena, where I bought time from 7-10 pm on Sunday nights. I was a stock broker at Merrill Lynch at the time and sold advertising time to a brick company in LA along with a few other sponsors. After a four month run, I was able to bring my show to KFMB in San Diego for a Sunday night show. After 10 weeks, Sports Fan Radio Network in Las Vegas asked me to host weekend shows and overnights. I did that for about two months before taking over their overnight slot on Memorial Day, 1996, and never looked back. It was tough to take a huge pay cut and leave the investment industry, but I had a passion for sports talk and couldn't let the opportunity pass me by.
2. About what are you most passionate these days?
I'm passionate about my family, friends and sports. Those aspects of my life keep me focused and happy.
3. You started as a caller and now take a huge number of calls on your own show, so you're the expert for this one: what makes a good sports show caller and a good on-air call?
A good caller needs to be prepared and entertaining. Every time I called a sports talk show, I wanted to be the star and get listeners talking. A good caller has to be informed and opinionated. I respect callers because I used to be the guy sitting on hold for an hour looking to get my opinion on the air. My show will always be caller intensive because more callers go to live sporting events than most of the hosts that they listen to. Callers are P1 listeners who drive ratings and revenue to a station and I consistently talk to more first-time callers than any sports talk host in America. I also hang up on more of them too. It is a bigger risk to take a call from a listener in another market than to read off the computer or a script provided by a producer.
4. As a Knicks fan, do you see any light at the end of the tunnel for the team in its current state (better than last year, but still on the lower levels of mediocre)?And as a New Yorker now based in L.A., is it hard to be surrounded by Laker fans and Kobe love (at least Raider Nation still extends here)?
The Knicks have become a joke and it is sad to watch what the Dolan family has done to that once proud franchise. I grew up going to the Garden with my father and watched some pretty bad teams, but this recent five-year debacle is the worst in franchise history because of their high payroll and expensive ticket prices. I will always remain a hard core Knicks fan and hopefully they will wake up in the near future.
LA is all about the Lakers and USC football. This is the weakest major sports town in America and everyone knows it. LA doesn't want a professional football team because the fans would rather watch two or three national games on television then sit in traffic on Sunday.
I have worked for the Oakland Raiders since 1998 and currently host their TV show "The Raider Report," so I get to interact with many Silver and Black fans in LA. They are the most loyal fans in professional sports and have played a major role in my career.
5. Who's your favorite athlete of all time and why?
My favorite athlete of all time was Thurman Munson. As the catcher and captain of the Yankees, he personified what was right about sports while I was growing up in New York. He played hard and was a leader.
6. Who are your mentors, your inspirations, the people you've learned the most from?
My father is my inspiration. He was my role model throughout my life and plays a bigger role each day now that I'm married and have two sons (5 & 3). He is a passionate sports fan and also made sure that he coached every game that I played as a kid. When I had to make the tough decision to leave the profession of stock broker to become a sports talk host, he gave me the confidence to make the move and mentally supported me along the way.
7. Of what are you most proud?
I'm most proud of my wife and kids. My wife is my best friend and the person who keeps me grounded. I'm proud of my boys and the way they are growing up. I'm also proud that Fox Sports Radio has helped me build the largest syndicated sports talk show at night in America. We now host "Military Night" each Thursday and talk to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nothing is better than putting a soldier on the air and letting them talk about their favorite team for a few minutes as they take a break from their real job.
8. What do you do for fun?
For fun, I go to sporting events with my friends. It is the biggest perk in the business and it is fun to bring some of my best friends with me when I go to the Daytona 500, Super Bowl or prize fights in Vegas.
9. Fill in the blank: I can't make it through the day without _____________.
...the support of my family, and something fun to talk about on the radio each night.
10. What's the best advice you've ever gotten?
The best: Treat your ability to make people laugh as a ministry, not to be abused or wasted. The best advice that I ever received was to work harder than my peers or competitors. When I was a stock broker, I wouldn't leave for the day until I made 300 cold calls. Work ethic is the key to financial success.
