Jim Host
Jim Host’s vision and salesmanship transformed college sports marketing. His company, Host Communications, started with radio marketing for the University of Kentucky football and basketball, then grew to handle all media rights for athletics at UK and other universities.
Working with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Host came to handle exclusive media rights (except television) for collegiate sports marketing. He played foundational roles in creating Rupp Arena, the Kentucky Horse Park, and the KFC Yum Sports Center. He was also an influential voice in the establishment of Kentucky Educational Television.
In 1967, at 29, he served as commissioner of the department of public information for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. In 2003, at age 65, he returned to state government as secretary of commerce.
Host was a stellar baseball pitcher in high school. The Detroit Tigers Major League Baseball team offered to sign him when he graduated from Ashland High School in Ashland, Kentucky. Instead, he accepted a full baseball scholarship to UK. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in radio arts, he signed with the Chicago White Sox, but his career was cut short by an arm injury.
He joined WVLK radio station in Lexington as a sports broadcaster and DJ. He later got involved in politics. A failed run for lieutenant governor left him with, he said, “$107 in my pocket.” He had more than $76,000 in debt from the campaign, two car payments, house payments, and no income. “I had to figure out pretty quickly what I was going to do to put food on the table for a wife and two young children.”
In 1971, he founded Host and Associates (soon renamed Host Communications). “I wanted it to sound like I had a big company, but it was just me,” he said. Host became the first executive director of the Lexington Tourism Commission and in 1972 became the first executive director of the newly formed Lexington Center Corporation board.
Host stepped down as CEO of Host Communication in 2001. IMG acquired the company in 2007.
Host has been inducted into 14 regional and national halls of fame, including the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame (the first inductee who was not a player or coach), the University of Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame, and Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. He has received three honorary doctorates. In late October, he received the Lexington Urban League’s 2023 Community Service Award in recognition of his support to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Lexington community.
Host and his wife, Patricia, have seven grandchildren and reside in Lexington. Business Lexington spoke with Host about his work and life in sports and business.
A crucial ingredient of your success has been salesmanship. How did you develop that skill?
I learned how to market and sell through a three-year commitment I made with Procter and Gamble — probably the best-managed sales marketing company in the United States, headquartered in Cincinnati. I was selling radio for WVLK and then went to work for Procter and Gamble. I came back [to Lexington] and took my insurance and real estate tests, becoming a licensed real estate broker and insurance agent. So, I’ve had a wide variety of experience in sales and marketing. The way to crystallize it best is, if you do not believe in yourself, how can anybody believe in you? And second, if you don’t understand what you’re trying to sell, how can you communicate it? And third, if you do not develop personal relationships with the people you’re trying to sell to, you’ll never be successful.
Did your experience as an athlete give you an edge in the business world?
There’s no question that having been in athletics dramatically helped my business career, primarily because the competition of athletics teaches you great discipline, teaches you how to prepare, and teaches you, more than anything else, how to win.
And as a business leader, you often took on the role of coach.
When I played ball in high school and college, and then when I played professionally, at each level, there was someone who was a coach and did his best to get the best out of me. There were times that I didn’t like it. There were times when people in business didn’t like it. But the thing that I found in athletics and business, is that if you treat people fairly, if you’re upfront with them, if you tell them what your demands are, and if you strive for excellence and you don’t let anybody get by with not doing their best, you can succeed. That’s what I learned in athletics, and that’s what I strove for in business. I’ve always been talked about as being a coach. I’ve worked with young people consistently. Just this past week, I met with a young person from the university. Today, I met with a young person who has a job in sports. I’ve been mentoring him in terms of things he needs to do to improve himself. I continue to do it because I love to help people get better.
Are there any projects you’re currently engaged with?
I’m working with some individuals who have a nonprofit for building the largest tourism project in southeastern Kentucky, called Boone’s Ridge, in Bell County. It has required a lot of government involvement, as well as private businesses and private foundations.
I have been working on the University of Kentucky’s Communication School, putting a new communications facility on the first floor of what was the retail space in Rupp Arena.
Since 2004, I’ve been deeply involved in helping bring broadband across the state. I’m actively involved in developing strategies with several individuals at the state and private levels to bring high-speed broadband that will forever change the landscape, especially in Eastern Kentucky.