A man of many different hats

Spearfish broadcaster to be honored at National Finals Rodeo

By Joe Kavanaugh, Journal correspondent | Thursday, November 13, 2008

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Jim Thompson is not a man new to accolades. The Spearfish resident and noted South Dakota radio broadcaster, whose program “On the Road Again” has been on the air for over 30 years, has a bio spangled with awards received from a wide variety of organizations.

Thompson has been selected as the South Dakota Sportscaster of the Year, and was inducted into the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame, the Casey Tibbs’ Rodeo Hall of Fame, and Black Hills Stock Show Hall of Fame. 

But soon Thompson will add another accomplishment to that distinguished list — the John Justin Standard of the West, Committeeman of the Year. The award will be presented to Thompson on Dec. 11  on Justin Boot night at the 50th annual National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

The national award is presented yearly to the outstanding rodeo volunteer of the year. The presentation culminates a yearlong selection process involving approximately 500 of the more than 700 sanctioned rodeos around the country. Winners at the local level are chosen, culled to a final group of selectees and a single national honoree is chosen.

“This award means an awful lot to me,” Thompson, currently the owner and radio voice of Creative Broadcasting Services Inc. in Spearfish, said. “A lot of what I have done in rodeo you don’t think of as being special. Everybody is doing the same thing, volunteering their time and effort to make small rodeos successful. So when I was selected last spring by the Deke Latham Kaycee (Wyo.) rodeo as volunteer of the year, I just though it was my friends honoring me for my 22 years of service. I thought it was a very nice gesture and gave me a nice feeling, and thought that was the end of it.”

Unaware that Justin Boot Company selected a national winner, Thompson was very much surprised to learn a few weeks ago that he had been selected as the national award winner, and that he and his wife, Daryla, would be flown to Las Vegas and feted at the National Finals Rodeo.

“Considering that rodeo has been my life for so many years, this award is very meaningful to me,” Thompson said. “It represents the grass-roots nature of rodeo and particularly the small town rodeos where everybody has to pitch in to make it happen.”

Thompson began his career in broadcasting and rodeo in 1965, shortly after graduating from Sturgis High School. The interest in rodeo was a natural since his parents operated a ranch in the area and many family members were involved in the sport. The broadcasting, however, came about largely by accident as his baseball playing days were temporarily cut short by a knife accident while working in a local meat market. A suggestion that he assist in a baseball radio broadcast was met with some initial trepidation.

“I told them I could never do that, talking that is, but I could point to things,” he said. “After awhile I found I kind of enjoyed it and I found I could even talk too.”

Broadcasting school in Minneapolis followed high school graduation, and then a brief broadcasting stint in Valentine, Neb., before the Army beckoned in 1968. While serving overseas in Korea, Thompson gained valuable broadcasting experience on Armed Forces Radio. Upon discharge in 1970, Thompson began a broadcasting career that has taken him to Scottsbluff, Neb., Sturgis, Pierre, and, lastly, Watertown where, in addition to his broadcasting duties, he found time to serve a couple of terms in the state senate before moving back to Spearfish in 1997 and starting CBSI.

It was during Thompson’s time in Watertown that he earned three state sports broadcaster of the year awards — in 1975, 1978 and 1979 — perfecting his craft to the extent that he auditioned for and became a finalist for the Minnesota Twins radio job working alongside long time Twins broadcaster Herb Carneal. Initially chosen by WCCO radio, the flagship station of Twins baseball, only a last-minute change of mind by Minnesota owner Cal Griffith who opted for Frank Quilici, a former Twins player, kept Thompson out of the booth.

“It was an exciting time, and I was certainly disappointed when I did not get the job,” Thompson said. “I certainly would have enjoyed doing baseball every day.”

Thompson’s venture into rodeo announcing began in 1976. Initially undertaken as a labor of love, by 1988 this weekend avocation had blossomed into a full-time enterprise, an activity that meshed nicely with his radio work on the series, “On the Road Again.” During those years, he covered rodeo at every possible venue from the National High School Finals all the way up to the big show, the PRCA National Finals in Las Vegas.

The full-time rodeo announcing lasted until 2000 when faced with expanding CBSI responsibilities, Thompson finally hung up the spurs. Partially anyway, even now the allure of rodeo remains, and Thompson continues to keep his hat in the ring with some part-time announcing of steer roping events. For Jim Thompson, a man whose busy career has required the juggling of many different hats, the cowboy hat clearly remains the headwear of choice.