BIOGRAPHIES: Bartlett Joshua “B.J.” Palmer (1881-1961)

B.J. Palmer was born on September 10, 1881, in What Cheer, Iowa. His father was the world’s first chiropractic practitioner and trained B.J. in his own clinic. Together, they operated the first chiropractic school, but their differing opinions caused them to part ways. Palmer continued to operate the Palmer School of Chiropractic in Davenport.

Although Palmer is responsible for many ground-breaking contributions to the chiropractic field, he was also aware of the potential of radio broadcasting. Allegedly obtaining the second radio license in the United States, Palmer began to operate WOC (World of Chiropractic) out of Davenport in 1922. The first broadcasts were made out of the Palmer residence at 828 Brady Street in Davenport and included lectures, musical programs, and many other types of programs.

The main purpose of the program, however, was to advertise the chiropractic school and clinic. Palmer was very successful in doing this due to the way the advertising was structured. Instead of the widely-used format at the time in which eight minutes of advertising ran for each 15 minutes of broadcasting, Palmer cut it down to just two one-minute commercial breaks. In addition, he wrote the book, Radio Salesmanship, which was published and sold in eight editions.

Palmer’s broadcasting empire expanded in time. In 1929, his venture acquired WHO radio in Des Moines, which was incorporated as the Central Broadcasting Company, an affiliate of NBC. With of the advance of technology, the next step was to include television because of its visual impact on advertising. In 1947, Palmer added the television stations affiliated with WOC and WHO, as well as including FM radio.

Before his death in 1961, Palmer had experimented with cable television stations. His son David took over this task in Florida and California and just like his father, experienced great success.