Jim was born in 1947 in the town of Pleasantville, New York. His father worked for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in New  York City. The family moved to Miami in 1963 when Jim's dad took a job at  WCKT-TV.
Jim's cousin was a West Point graduate and Jim was captivated by that fact, so he enrolled in the Miami Military Academy when he was 15. Jim's experience there was less than enjoyable.  Jim graduated from high school in 1966.  At his parents urging he enrolled at the University of Florida.  Jim's roommate had a job at the college radio station, which  was a student-run 5,000-watt commercial radio station.  Jim graduated with a mass communications degree in 1971. While in college Jim married.  Jim's wife got a job in the Virgin Islands, then in San Francisco.   While there Jim received a call from a friend in Orlando, telling him there was a job for a news reporter at WKIS-AM 740 in 1972. By 1974 Jim had become the news director/anchor at WKIS. In 1978 Jim also became the news director of the Florida Radio Network. In 1985 Jim won the Greater Orlando Press Club's award for best news event reporting. In 1986,  he took over the afternoon talk program when Dick Norman was fired by Kay Barone, "...because he wouldn’t pitch to Jim Philips with his “man on the street” opinions on the news of the day". Jim has led a very interesting life.  He was a ringmaster for a traveling circus out of Alabama.  He lasted about two weeks on that job and then returned to Orlando. In 1995, Jim went to Ireland to marry fiancé Catherine Dillard in the land of his ancestors. Catherine, is a former producer of Philips's show.  Jim can now be heard on the very successful "Philips Phile" on WTKS-FM 104.1 from 3 until 7p.m.. Jim was named one of the nation's "Top 100 Talk Show Hosts" by Talkers Magazine in 1998. Jim has also been nominated for a Marconi Award for large market personality of the year by the National Association of Broadcasters. You can catch commentaries from Jim, Thursday evenings at 5:55PM. on WESH-Channel 2.  
 Jim's commentaries on WESH-TV ended in March of 2008.