KTNT
Baker chose the call letters KTNT for his new radio station, which stood for “Know The Naked Truth.” His show aired for the first time on Thanksgiving Day, 1925. Baker knew of the distrust felt toward urban big businesses and cast himself in the role as hero for Muscatine’s small business owners as well as its rural community of farmers and laborers. Baker regularly used his radio platform to take a swipe at a number of organizations and individuals who he disagreed with, which included Wall Street and the American Medical Association and the Aluminum Trust.
Radio allowed Baker to make himself better known and also gave him the opportunity to sell his products to an even wider market. In 1928 Baker’s show began broadcasting at 10,000 watts which meant that his show could reach over one million homes. Baker’s KTNT show became so popular that thousands of people would come to the station just to hear his broadcasts. It seemed as if Baker could do no wrong. His radio career was thriving and he had become very wealthy from his many successful businesses.
However, as his popularity and his profile soared, Baker began to alienate himself from his listenership and followers by engaging in spiteful attempted character assassinations of his enemies, accusing them on-air of adultery and drunkenness. It had the opposite effect and did more damage to his own reputation than to the others he tried to smear. It was his next venture however which led to his downfall. In 1929, Baker heard of Dr. Charles Ozias who had purportedly discovered a cure for cancer. Norman called for five volunteers with cancer to be sent to Dr. Ozias for treatment at his own expense.
Baker’s new tabloid magazine, called The Naked Truth (TNT), would publish the study’s findings in the December issue of 1929. Despite having never received any medical training in his life, Norman was convinced that using aluminum-based products such as utensils caused cancer and that cancer could not be cured by “operation, radium, or x-ray.” He dismissively referred to surgeons as “cutters.” Baker attained the “cure” from Dr. Ozias in January 1930. He claimed that the formula could be administered by injection and would cure cancer.
In November 1929, the first test patient died. In spite of this, Baker’s TNT magazine published in December, with him and two of his associates adorning the front page under the headline “Cancer is Cured.” Later in December, a second patient died. A third and fourth died in January and February. Outrageously and shamefully Baker reprinted the December issue of TNT in March 1930 which described the miraculous recovery of all five volunteers. The fifth patient died a couple of months later in May. Baker again reprinted the December issue.
Baker’s formula turned out to be a useless concoction of alcohol, glycerine, carbolic acid mixed with tea brewed from watermelon seed, brown corn silk, and clover leaves. He opened the Baker Institute for the treatment of cancer sufferers in Muscatine. He used his KTNT radio show to promote his new hospital and in March, despite already claiming to have a cure for cancer, he decided to employ a charlatan with his own alleged cure for cancer, Harry Hoxsey.
Desperate and vulnerable cancer sufferers who believed in Baker’s and Hoxsey’s cures flocked to the treatment center. The Baker Institute became financially very successful and had earnings of over $444,000 in 1930 alone. However, Baker was now on the radar of the American Medical Association (AMA), who sought to expose him for the fraud he was. The editor of the Journal of the Medical Association (JAMA) wrote in the April edition of the journal: “The viciousness of Mr. Baker’s broadcasting lies not in what he says about the American Medical Association but in the fact that he induces sufferers from cancer who might have some chance for their lives, if seen early and properly treated, to resort to his nostrum.”