J.T. the Brick
Encyclopedia
John Tournour better known as J.T. the Brick is a sport
s talk radio
host based in Las Vegas, Nevada
. His show airs weeknights from 10pm to 3am Pacific time (1am to 6am Eastern) on Fox Sports Radio
. Tournour is a graduate of SUNY Geneseo.
. After winning the inaugural "Smack-Off
" in 1995, J.T. was quickly offered a job hosting a late-night Sunday show at KMAX-Los Angeles. Ten weeks later, the station owner faced financial problems and cancelled J.T.'s show. A devastated J.T. volunteered to sell his own advertising in return for regaining the time slot. KMAX agreed, and the show continued.
From there, J.T. moved his show to KFMB
-San Diego
, where he only spent a few weeks, before being offered a show on the now-defunct Las Vegas
-based Sports Fan Radio Network
. J.T.'s late-night show lasted five years, until the network's demise in 2001. During this time, J.T. also hosted an afternoon show on San Francisco
-based radio station KNBR. At one time, KNBR had J.T. for his local show, his four-hour national show, and an overnight replay of at least a portion of that national show before the next broadcast day began. J.T. was on well over a third of the entire day at that point.
In June 2001, J.T. landed at the upstart Fox Sports Radio, hosting an afternoon show. It didn't take long for the network to realize that J.T. was better suited for late nights, where his talent helped build the largest late-night syndicated sports show in the nation on SportsFan Radio Network. He remains on the late night shift today.
J.T. also hosted, until the end of the 2005 season, a Sunday night show, Fox Sunday Game Time React, where he discussed the football
games of the day with Bryan Cox
. That show was eventually replaced by a similar show hosted by John Fricke and Chris Landry
.
J.T. is known for delivering all of his opinions in a very aggressive manner. J.T. makes well-known the fact he is a die-hard fan of the New York Giants
and New York Yankees
. He also works for the Oakland Raiders
(a team he definitely supports on-air) as a host of Fox Sports Net programming. He hates the Philadelphia Eagles
, and despises the Boston Red Sox
. Throughout his radio career, he has expected the same of all of his callers, calling upon them to never take a night off (as he wouldn't) and to give "passion and energy" to the radio program, and not hesitant at all to loudly hang up on callers who do not comply, or to insist that the callers pick up the "passion and energy" if he feels the show is lagging in both.
The primary focus of his Fox Sports Radio program is the NFL, and, on Friday nights during the season and playoffs, he calls for at least one caller from every NFL team (during the playoffs, those in the playoffs) to answer his "NFL Roll Call".
On May 29, 2006, J.T. celebrated his ten year anniversary as a sports radio personality.
J.T. made a guest appearance on CNBC
's The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch
on June 26, 2006, to discuss the feud between Chicago Sun-Times
columnist Jay Mariotti
, and Chicago White Sox
skipper Ozzie Guillén
.
Tomm Looney, the voice of The Best Damn Sports Show Period
, works alongside J.T. on the show. Looney is best known for providing the two-times-hourly sports updates and for hosting the entertainment segment of the show which is called "Pop Looney."
During the 2005 National League Championship Series
, Albert Pujols
smashed a game winning home run
against the Houston Astros
. J.T. was so excited that he accidentally called Pujols "Albert Hooblehoff" while live on the air. Since then, once J.T. mentions Pujols on his show, a snippet of the "Albert Hooblehoff" soundbite is played. Andrew Siciliano also plays the sound clip anytime a major leaguer hits a home run during his show.
In addition to his hosting duties, J.T. is a regular sports columnist for MSNBC.com
.
"the Brick" comes from his time as a caller to The Jim Rome Show. A "brick" is a common slang term in basketball
for a shot that bounces off the rim. Jim Rome
dubbed the New York Knicks
as the "New York Bricks" for their lack of offense in the mid-'90s. The term "Brick" was later extended to mean anyone from New York, especially J.T. with his thick New York accent.
, owner and licensee of Fox Sports Radio), and share many of the same affiliates. Although Rome follows through with his policy of inviting all Smack-Off winners back for future competitions, he has otherwise cut all ties with J.T.
J.T. made himself available for an extensive interview in Alan Eisenstock's 2001
book, Sports Talk (Rome declined numerous requests for an interview for the same book). In the interview, J.T. details his decision to leave a six-figure income as a stock broker to chase his dream of talking sports for a living. He also weighs in on his relationship with Rome, saying:
Even today, the two often take subtle on-air jabs at each other. As an example, Rome makes a point that he doesn't take lots of phone calls, stating that he doesn't want the fate of his show to be determined by said callers; J.T., on the other hand, makes the point that he includes callers as top priority of his own show. Those statements seem to hint at each other's opposite viewpoints.
On January 23, 2007, Rome was talking about former Jungle contributors who have gone into the sports radio business after they left his show. Rome said that J.T. the Brick has "an excellent show."
On February 7, 2007, J.T. said he was the best caller in American sports radio and then was asked not to call that show again. He then made a point to say that his show was not like that and all callers are welcome, and even if they are bad callers, they are welcome to call the show the next day and give it another shot. Though he never mentioned Rome by name, this was a clear reference to Rome's show. On May 2, 2007, J.T. announced he would end his 12-year hiatus from The Jungle by participating in the 2007 Smack-Off. However, he failed to make an appearance.
with his wife Julie and his 2 sons on January 7, 2010.
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
s talk radio
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
host based in Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
. His show airs weeknights from 10pm to 3am Pacific time (1am to 6am Eastern) on Fox Sports Radio
Fox Sports Radio
Fox Sports Radio, abbreviated FSR, is an international radio network consisting of sports talk programming. The network is a service of Premiere Networks...
. Tournour is a graduate of SUNY Geneseo.
Career
J.T., a former stock broker, got his start in sports radio after becoming a frequent caller to The Jim Rome ShowThe Jim Rome Show
The Jim Rome Show is a sports radio talk show hosted by Jim Rome. It airs live for three hours each weekday from 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. The show is produced in Los Angeles, California, syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, and can be heard on more than 200 affiliate radio stations in the U.S...
. After winning the inaugural "Smack-Off
Smack-Off
The Smack-Off is an annual competition on The Jim Rome Show, in which select listeners are invited to provide their best "smack talk", with Rome and his show personnel determining the winner. It is held in mid-to-late spring and takes up the entire program on a Friday...
" in 1995, J.T. was quickly offered a job hosting a late-night Sunday show at KMAX-Los Angeles. Ten weeks later, the station owner faced financial problems and cancelled J.T.'s show. A devastated J.T. volunteered to sell his own advertising in return for regaining the time slot. KMAX agreed, and the show continued.
From there, J.T. moved his show to KFMB
KFMB (AM)
KFMB is a conservative talk radio station in San Diego, California, co-owned with KFMB-FM and KFMB-TV. KFMB is one of the few stations in the U.S. that increases power at night. The daytime power is limited due to KBRT , a religious-programming station with transmitters on Santa Catalina Island....
-San Diego
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, where he only spent a few weeks, before being offered a show on the now-defunct Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
-based Sports Fan Radio Network
Sports Fan Radio Network
The Sports Fan Radio Network was a sports talk radio network that existed from 1996 through 2001, when it abruptly folded.-Launch:SportsFan Radio Network officially debuted in 1993 with 80 hours of programming per month. Based in Las Vegas, the network broadcast its flagship show "SportsFan...
. J.T.'s late-night show lasted five years, until the network's demise in 2001. During this time, J.T. also hosted an afternoon show on San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
-based radio station KNBR. At one time, KNBR had J.T. for his local show, his four-hour national show, and an overnight replay of at least a portion of that national show before the next broadcast day began. J.T. was on well over a third of the entire day at that point.
In June 2001, J.T. landed at the upstart Fox Sports Radio, hosting an afternoon show. It didn't take long for the network to realize that J.T. was better suited for late nights, where his talent helped build the largest late-night syndicated sports show in the nation on SportsFan Radio Network. He remains on the late night shift today.
J.T. also hosted, until the end of the 2005 season, a Sunday night show, Fox Sunday Game Time React, where he discussed the football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
games of the day with Bryan Cox
Bryan Cox
Bryan Keith Cox is a former American football linebacker who played twelve seasons in the NFL from 1991 through 2002. He was a member of the New England Patriots club that won Super Bowl XXXVI...
. That show was eventually replaced by a similar show hosted by John Fricke and Chris Landry
Chris Landry
Chris Landry is an American extreme skier and snow scientist. Landry made several pioneering ski descents of western mountains, including Pyramid Peak, near Aspen, Colorado. In addition Landry founded the Spring Gulch Nordic ski area near Carbondale, Colorado and is the Executive Director of the...
.
J.T. is known for delivering all of his opinions in a very aggressive manner. J.T. makes well-known the fact he is a die-hard fan of the New York Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
and New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
. He also works for the Oakland Raiders
Oakland Raiders
The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
(a team he definitely supports on-air) as a host of Fox Sports Net programming. He hates the Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
, and despises the Boston Red Sox
Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight charter franchises, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park since . The "Red Sox"...
. Throughout his radio career, he has expected the same of all of his callers, calling upon them to never take a night off (as he wouldn't) and to give "passion and energy" to the radio program, and not hesitant at all to loudly hang up on callers who do not comply, or to insist that the callers pick up the "passion and energy" if he feels the show is lagging in both.
The primary focus of his Fox Sports Radio program is the NFL, and, on Friday nights during the season and playoffs, he calls for at least one caller from every NFL team (during the playoffs, those in the playoffs) to answer his "NFL Roll Call".
On May 29, 2006, J.T. celebrated his ten year anniversary as a sports radio personality.
J.T. made a guest appearance on CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
's The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch
The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch
The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch was a talk show on CNBC hosted by Donny Deutsch. The show offered success stories that outlined a "roadmap to the American Dream." Every weeknight at 10pm, Donny Deutsch, the CEO of advertising and media business Deutsch Inc., introduced the audience to successful...
on June 26, 2006, to discuss the feud between Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
columnist Jay Mariotti
Jay Mariotti
Jay Mariotti is a former national columnist for Fanhouse.com and has done work as a panelist on the ESPN show Around the Horn.-Life and career:...
, and Chicago White Sox
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
skipper Ozzie Guillén
Ozzie Guillén
Oswaldo José "Ozzie" Guillén Barrios is a Venezuelan-American former Major League Baseball player and current manager of the Miami Marlins. He managed the Chicago White Sox from 2004 to 2011 before asking for his release at the end of the 2011 season....
.
The J.T. the Brick Show
His late-night Fox Sports Radio program, The J.T. the Brick Show, also known as "Sports Radio's Most Interactive Show" and Gametime React, once aired from 10 PM-2 AM, Eastern time, as of August 10, 2009 Nationally syndicated by the FOX Sports Radio Network, the JT "The Brick" Show airs on over 250 radio stations, Monday through Friday, from 10 p.m. - 3 a.m. PT/1am -6 am ET. The program can also be heard on XM channel 169, the Armed Forces Radio Network and www.foxsportsradio.com. J.T. is known for giving die hard sports fans a chance to interact and voice their opinions on a nightly basis. He urges his callers not to ask questions because he believes it makes boring radio. Instead, his callers are encouraged to come strong with their opinions about sports. J.T. has little patience for boring callers, and often hangs up on them with a pre-recorded clip of J.T. shouting "TOMM!"Tomm Looney, the voice of The Best Damn Sports Show Period
The Best Damn Sports Show Period
The Best Damn Sports Show Period is an American sports television show on Fox Sports Net and Comcast SportsNet. The show regularly featured irreverent and opinionated interviews with top athletes, coaches, celebrities, and entertainers. It also aired Top 50 countdown shows and other sports...
, works alongside J.T. on the show. Looney is best known for providing the two-times-hourly sports updates and for hosting the entertainment segment of the show which is called "Pop Looney."
During the 2005 National League Championship Series
2005 National League Championship Series
-Game 1:Wednesday, October 12, 2005 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, MissouriIn the series opener, the Cardinals won 5–3 behind a strong pitching performance by Cy Young winner Chris Carpenter and a two-run home run by Reggie Sanders in the first inning...
, Albert Pujols
Albert Pujols
José Alberto Pujols Alcántara , better known as Albert Pujols , is a Dominican-American professional baseball player, who is currently a free agent...
smashed a game winning home run
Home run
In baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process...
against the Houston Astros
Houston Astros
The Houston Astros are a Major League Baseball team located in Houston, Texas. They are a member of the National League Central division. The Astros are expected to join the American League West division in 2013. Since , they have played their home games at Minute Maid Park, known as Enron Field...
. J.T. was so excited that he accidentally called Pujols "Albert Hooblehoff" while live on the air. Since then, once J.T. mentions Pujols on his show, a snippet of the "Albert Hooblehoff" soundbite is played. Andrew Siciliano also plays the sound clip anytime a major leaguer hits a home run during his show.
In addition to his hosting duties, J.T. is a regular sports columnist for MSNBC.com
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
.
Origin of nickname
The nicknameNickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
"the Brick" comes from his time as a caller to The Jim Rome Show. A "brick" is a common slang term in basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
for a shot that bounces off the rim. Jim Rome
Jim Rome
Jim Rome is an American sports radio talk show host syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications....
dubbed the New York Knicks
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, prominently known as the Knicks, are a professional basketball team based in New York City. They are part of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
as the "New York Bricks" for their lack of offense in the mid-'90s. The term "Brick" was later extended to mean anyone from New York, especially J.T. with his thick New York accent.
Relationship with Jim Rome
To this day, there is friction between J.T. and Jim Rome, despite the fact both work for the same company (Premiere Radio NetworksPremiere Radio Networks
Premiere Networks is an American radio network. It is the largest syndication company in the United States based on popularity of programming...
, owner and licensee of Fox Sports Radio), and share many of the same affiliates. Although Rome follows through with his policy of inviting all Smack-Off winners back for future competitions, he has otherwise cut all ties with J.T.
J.T. made himself available for an extensive interview in Alan Eisenstock's 2001
2001 in literature
The year 2001 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The film version of J. R. R. Tolkien's classic book, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, is released to movie theaters...
book, Sports Talk (Rome declined numerous requests for an interview for the same book). In the interview, J.T. details his decision to leave a six-figure income as a stock broker to chase his dream of talking sports for a living. He also weighs in on his relationship with Rome, saying:
Even today, the two often take subtle on-air jabs at each other. As an example, Rome makes a point that he doesn't take lots of phone calls, stating that he doesn't want the fate of his show to be determined by said callers; J.T., on the other hand, makes the point that he includes callers as top priority of his own show. Those statements seem to hint at each other's opposite viewpoints.
On January 23, 2007, Rome was talking about former Jungle contributors who have gone into the sports radio business after they left his show. Rome said that J.T. the Brick has "an excellent show."
On February 7, 2007, J.T. said he was the best caller in American sports radio and then was asked not to call that show again. He then made a point to say that his show was not like that and all callers are welcome, and even if they are bad callers, they are welcome to call the show the next day and give it another shot. Though he never mentioned Rome by name, this was a clear reference to Rome's show. On May 2, 2007, J.T. announced he would end his 12-year hiatus from The Jungle by participating in the 2007 Smack-Off. However, he failed to make an appearance.
Family
Tournour purchased a residence in Summerlin, NevadaSummerlin, Nevada
Summerlin is an affluent master-planned community under development by The Howard Hughes Corporation in the Las Vegas metropolitan area of Nevada near the Spring Mountains and Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. It lies partially within the city limits of Las Vegas, Nevada, and in...
with his wife Julie and his 2 sons on January 7, 2010.