Jim Host
Jim Host (born November 23, 1937, in Kane, Pennsylvania) is an American businessman best known for founding Host Communications, a pioneering collegiate sports-marketing and production services company that was acquired by IMG in 2007 for $74.3 million. Host sits on the National Advisory Board of the College of Communication and Information at the University of Kentucky. Early life Host was born in Kane, Pennsylvania to Wilford and Beatrice Host. His father worked in tanneries, and they traveled from Pennsylvania to New York to Virginia to West Virginia looking for work. The family settled in Ashland, Kentucky when Jim was an eighth grader. Host was one of the first two recipients of a baseball scholarship offered by the University of Kentucky. He earned a bachelor's degree in radio arts from the university in 1961. During his time at UK, Host started recording a lot of play-by-play radio broadcasts for college and high school sports. He worked with the UK Student Station, WBKY, from 1957 to 1959 covering UK games and in 1959 he created the Kentucky Central UK Network, one of five UK broadcast organizations until 1961. Following his career as a Wildcat, Host was a pitcher in the Chicago White Sox farm system until he suffered a career-ending arm injury. Professional and business career Politics In 1967, at age 29, he became the youngest member of Kentucky Gov. Louie B. Nunn's cabinet as commissioner of the department of public information. He later became commissioner of the department of parks and, as founding chairman, helped to start the Kentucky Horse Park. In 2010, the Kentucky Horse Park hosted the World Equestrian Games (WEG) and from 2006 to 2009 Host served as the Chairman of the WEG. In 1971, Host unsuccessfully ran for Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky on the ticket of Republican Tom Emberton, who had also served in the administration of Nunn, who hurt the party's chances by winning an increase in the sales tax to 5 percent from 3 percent in 1968. From 2003 to 2005, Host served as Kentucky secretary of Commerce under Governor Ernie Fletcher. Host Communications In 1972, Host started Jim Host & Associates, which later became Host Communications, Inc. Within a week of starting his company, he was contacted by Fayette County officials to do promotional work for the Lexington Tourist and Convention Bureau. They became Host's first client and their relationship eventually led to the formation of the Lexington Center Corp., which oversaw construction of the Lexington Civic Center (now known as Central Bank Center) and Rupp Arena. Host served as the Executive Director of both groups. His company continued its rise to prominence when it bought the radio broadcast rights to University of Kentucky football and basketball games in 1974. Host paid $51,887 for the rights and financed the deal with the help of a letter of credit from his Lexington banker. More growth came when Host acquired the NCAA radio rights in 1975. That deal spurred a very fruitful business relationship between Host