Quick Facts
Biography
John Tournour (born November 23, 1965, in New York City, New York), better known as J.T. the Brick, is a sports talk radio host based in Las Vegas, Nevada. His show airs weekdays from 5pm to 8pm Pacific time (8pm to 11pm Eastern) on Fox Sports Radio. Tournour is a graduate of SUNY Geneseo.
Career
Tournour, a former stock broker, got his start in sports radio after becoming a frequent caller to The Jim Rome Show. After winning the inaugural "Smack-Off" in 1995, Tournour was offered a job hosting a late-night Sunday show at KMAX-Los Angeles.
From there, Tournour 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. Tournour's late-night show lasted five years, until the network's demise in 2001. Also while working in Las Vegas, Tournour called the very first XFL game featuring the Las Vegas Outlaws over local radio. During this time, Tournour also hosted an afternoon show on San Francisco-based radio station KNBR. At one time, KNBR had Tournour 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.
In June 2001, Tournour landed at the upstart Fox Sports Radio, hosting an afternoon show. He was later moved to the evening, hosting a late-night syndicated sports show on SportsFan Radio Network. The show got shifted to 3 pm Pacific, 6 pm Eastern, in 2012.
Tournour 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.
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".
Tournour 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.
The J.T. the Brick Show
Tomm Looney, the voice of The Best Damn Sports Show Period, works alongside Tournour 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."
In addition to his hosting duties, Tournour is a regular sports columnist for MSNBC.com.
Origin of nickname
The nickname "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 backboard. Rome would often refer to Tournour's favorite team, the New York Knicks, as the "Bricks".
Relationship with Jim Rome
Tournour 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, Tournour 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:
He's done everything for me. But he's done nothing for me (sic). It took Jim a while to get successful. I'm only in my fourth year. I've got two syndicated shows and I'm in the number four market (San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose). His fourth year, he was reading traffic.
Family
Tournour purchased a residence in Summerlin, Nevada with his wife Julie and his 2 sons on January 7, 2010.