Premiere Radio Networks syndicated radio sports talker Jim Rome confirmed Friday that he is leaving ESPN after eight years as host of “Jim Rome Is Burning.”  The Big Lead’s Jason McIntyre cited an ESPN source as saying that Rome “was presented with a multi-year offer to return to the network, but he did not accept it.” Two other sources said that Rome and the “JRIB” show “will move over to the burgeoning CBS Sports Network.” …

ESPN Radio network personality and SportsCenter anchor Brian Kenny is leaving ESPN for a “new opportunity.”  Kenny currently hosts his own national show on ESPN Radio from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET Monday-Friday. He’s also host of ESPN2′s Friday Night Fights.  Kenny is set to host his last SportsCenter in early September.  “Brian did great work for us. His contract was up and he found a new opportunity,”  ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys said Monday …

CNBC business reporter Ron Insana who’s been back on the network after leaving three years ago in an attempt to run a hedge fund, has been tapped by Compass Media to do radio stock market reports focusing on sports business news. Compass President Peter Kosann, who has been aggressively acquiring programming for the recently launched radio network,  is putting Insana on the radio with twice-daily reports at 10:30am and 4:30pm Eastern time. The “Market Score …

Reports are out that ESPN is planning on charging non-ESPN owned and operated stations cash on top of barter for affiliations. Of course this will all be on a sliding scale based on market size, but the figure could be as much as $100,000 in the top 30 markets. Talk about leveraging a brand…as one syndication veteran has said “it’s good if they can get it”, but could the timing be worse? There will be …

It was just a little sad to listen to Stephen A. Smith‘s final show on ESPN Radio last week. Supposedly he is moving on to “concentrate more on the television side of things”, but that sounds an awful lot like what was said when he exited the show “Quite Frankly” on ESPN 2 to move over and “concentrate on the radio side of things”. It makes you wonder what happened to his rising star, they …