Dom Theodore, the man Glenn Beck credits with saving his show, said the famed talk radio host saved his life. After 30 years of friendship, the pair have shared a lot together.
However, Theodore’s influence can be heard on more than just Glenn Beck’s show, it can be heard across the country.
“I’ve only done radio my entire life. I started answering phones at a radio station when I was 12 years old, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” Theodore told Barrett News Media over a Zoom call.
Growing up in Detroit, a young Dom Theodore answered phones for WKQI. “I would come back as the program director of that station, which was kind of interesting.” He eventually landed in Tampa, where he met Beck. “Glenn and I just hit it off really, really well. We became really close quickly.”
Dom Theodore, the Program Director at WFLZ was just across the hall from Glenn Beck, who was doing afternoon drive at WFLA. Soon after was the moment which Beck calls the moment Theodore saved his career.
Just a few months into Beck’s new gig, he dropped a career bombshell on Theodore. “He said, ‘I think I’m getting fired.’ I said, ‘Ok. Why do you think you’re getting fired?’
“‘Well, the program director of WFLA said to me today, ‘I hope it’s too early to say that we hired the wrong person’.”
Doing a show trying to please everyone, Theodore believes Glenn Beck lost sight of his own vision. “I said, ‘You know what? What’s happening is you’re doing somebody else’s show. You’re not doing The Glenn Beck Show. You’re doing somebody else’s show hosted by you. And so that’s never going to work. It’s not connecting because it’s not coming from [the heart].
“’My advice to you is go in there and do The Glenn Beck Show. Do that show that you wanted to do from day one, the one that you told me about.’ And he said, ‘Ok. Won’t I get fired for doing that?’ I said ‘You might, but you know what? Would you rather get fired for doing something that you think might work instead of continuing to do what you know isn’t working?’”
This helped launch Beck into the superstar we know today.
Many years later, Dom Theodore says the radio host saved his life. “I almost died in 2020. They discovered cancer in both of my kidneys. I had to have my kidneys removed and a transplant, all within a period of about six months, and it was a horrible time.
“There was not a test a procedure or anything that I went through that Glenn and (Beck’s wife) Tania weren’t on the phone the night before praying with me. I was at the Mayo Clinic getting a test and Glenn was on the air at the time. And he paused during a stop set and he called me and he prayed with me before I went in for that scan, and I will tell you, that’s a good friend. That’s a real friend.”
Today, Dom Theodore said of his health, “Thankfully, I’m doing ok for the most part. Now I have a transplant, and I’m still standing.”
Still working hard and as passionate as ever, he is looking for more content innovation in the industry. “Because of the debt service that a lot of these big companies have, the focus has been on producing what we’ve always done just at a lower cost point. Instead of experimentation and innovation.”
He noted, “The only way that this industry survives is content innovation. I know no one wants to hear that. I know that I’m saying things that are politically incorrect, and I don’t really care. I don’t really care. The radio industry CEOs hate this when people like me speak. They hate it because they know I’m right.”
Theodore noted what makes good radio is simple and hasn’t changed over the years.
“Somebody asked Les Moonves this question at one of our CBS meetings, and his answer was absolutely brilliant. He said, ‘Entertainment hasn’t changed since the days of the Colosseum. At the end of the day, it’s about having an interesting story and telling it in a really interesting way.’ And I do believe that that is the core basis of everything we do.”
While cultivating good talent takes time, Theodore said good talent often comes from interesting people who are often creative.
“What did the radio industry do in the last 10 or 20 years as it’s become more and more corporate? We threw all those people out. Now, ‘They’re too high maintenance. Just get rid of them. So why don’t we replace them with people that conform, that do as they’re told, and execute the plan that comes from above? Never questions authority.’ There might be a better employee, but that sure doesn’t make for better content.
“By the way, where did all the creatives go? Where do they go? Digital. There’s no rules and on YouTube, I can do whatever the hell I want. Why do I need some program director to tell me what to do? I can do a podcast and do whatever the hell I want. And some of them did it. And we’ve lost a generation of talent because we didn’t want to deal with the maintenance. I mean, how shortsighted is that?”
For those who are less shortsighted and looking to follow in the footsteps of Dom Theodore, he said don’t.
“I made a lot of mistakes through the years. First of all, don’t follow in my footsteps. Learn from my mistakes.”
The second part of his advice is being true to yourself and confidence in your truth. “I think being true to yourself is a matter of not conforming. In your gut that little voice inside you knows that you’re right and you’re doing something that’s different than what anyone else is doing. And therefore, because people don’t understand it, you’re being told that it’s wrong. You’re probably right and they’re probably wrong. And time will bear that out. So, have confidence.”
Krystina Alarcon Carroll is a news media columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
