10/21/2025
Always thought this was a fun fact about my hometown. Ronald Regan got his shot in broadcasting thanks to the Palmer Chiropractic family (1st chiro school worldwide) across the street.
“The Voice Before the Presidency: Ronald Reagan’s Radio Days in the Quad Cities”
www.whatsgoingonqc.com
Long before he became the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan was just a young man with a smooth voice and big dreams. And it was right here in the Quad Cities…Davenport, Iowa to be exact…where those dreams first took shape.
In the early 1930s, WOC Radio was one of the Midwest’s most innovative stations. Owned by the Palmer family (of chiropractic fame), WOC had already earned national attention for being among the first licensed radio stations in the country. It was known for pushing boundaries in both technology and talent.
Enter Ronald Reagan.
Fresh out of Eureka College, Reagan answered an ad for a sports broadcaster. He didn’t audition with a reel…he didn’t have one. Instead, he sat down at a microphone and improvised a Cubs game from memory, complete with color commentary and crack-of-the-bat drama. The station manager was impressed. He got the job.
From 1932 to 1937, Reagan sharpened his skills in the Quad Cities, first at WOC in Davenport, then at WHO in Des Moines. There, he built a reputation for his vivid recreations of baseball games using telegraph reports, adding flair and imagination that kept listeners glued to their radios.
His voice was charming, confident, and familiar…traits that would later define him as “The Great Communicator.”
The Quad Cities didn’t just give Reagan his first job…it gave him a platform. It was in front of a local mic that the world’s stage first cracked open for a kid from Illinois. And though his journey would eventually take him to Hollywood, Sacramento, and the White House, it all started right here with a broadcast booth, a telegraph wire, and a whole lot of imagination.
