These special pioneers took the lead in the phonograph work when the Society voluntarily withdrew from commercial use of the radio.
To learn of the effectiveness of this new program let's read from the 1940 Yearbook, which presents the report for the 1939 service year:
The special pioneer work was announced at the Columbus convention in September, 1937, and that work has continued now for two years with good results. When the special pioneer work began the company publishers were not convinced of the value of making back-calls and the regular daily use of the phonograph.
About 200 specially chosen pioneers throughout the country took upon themselves the responsibility of really putting to use the phonograph. They were sent into the large cities where companies were organized, and there it was proved, without question of doubt, that the phonograph had an important place in the proclamation of the Kingdom. In the past two years, because the publishers of the Kingdom became phonograph-minded, more than 20,000 phonographs had to be manufactured at the Brooklyn plant, and then we were unable to keep up with the demand.
http://www.strictlygenteel.co.uk/divinepurpose/purpose26.html
I happened to stumble on this and noticed that the WT produced their own record players. Something that probably made them a lot of money. Isn't it the same with the carts? All the poor people shelling out money for something that was made with volunteer labor and cheap parts. Hope some of them played music on it at least. Can't do that with the cart. Unless you get the version that sings like in the video.
Maybe when the society figures out a new way to make JW's pay, they can use the cart as a dolly. Haul trash out with it.
The other interesting thing in the article was the sentence "when the Society voluntarily withdrew from the commercial use of the radio" Was there a controversy over this?