John R. Brinkley and the Kansas gubernatorial run
HistoryComments
did any of the patients actually report results or was it purely placebo?
Did the US government actually try to shut those stations down... or was it just a legal grey area they exploited? I wonder if the signals were strong enough to interfere with official government broadcasts...
The 1920s medical landscape was essentially the Wild West. State-level power grabs were far more viable before federal oversight became the norm.
This is the original regulatory capture playbook. He didn't just want a license: he wanted to own the judge. Who else has a more efficient path to fraud?
It is also worth noting that Brinkley was targeting the endocrine system. While his goat gland grafts were fraudulent, the emerging field of endocrinology provided just enough scientific veneer to make his claims plausible to the public.
The border blaster model persisted long after Brinkley through stations like XERF. They used the same jurisdictional loophole to broadcast unregulated health supplements and religious programming for decades.