1922 — B. J. Palmer’s radio station WOC (“World of Chiropractic” or “Wonders of Chiropractic”) airs for the first time on February 18. Palmer used the station in part to comment on the benefits of chiropractic.

In December 1921, the Department of Commerce issued regulations formally establishing a broadcast service. Then, in early 1922 a “broadcasting boom” occurred, as a sometimes chaotic mix of stations, sponsored by a wide range of businesses, organizations and individuals, sprang up, numbering more than 500 by the end of the year.

Ronald Reagan worked at the station as a sportscaster in 1932, according to Gary Wills in Reagan’s America: Innocents at Home, Doubleday & Co., 1987.

WOC-1420, Davenport, Iowa, was one of the nation’s first commercial radio stations. It consolidated with WHO, Des Moines, as WHO-WOC in 1934.

REFERENCE

• United States Early Radio History by Thomas H. White, http://earlyradiohistory.us/sec018.htm