I remember growing up there was a fella on the radio Armstrong was his name. Occassionally, late at night I would be tuning across the band on AM radio and come across his rantings. His preaching sounded quite a lot like the JWs at that time. My mom would even listen to it, and then find one part where this fella diverted from JW teachings and hiss and walk away telling me to not listen to him.
I also remember that he asked for donations, and promised to send out stuff in the mail.
I always wondered why the JWs didn't do this too. I was told that the JWs had a radio station in New York (Staton Island) WBBR, and sold it. I thought 'Why?' It always seemed to me that they could reach far more people than we were knocking on doors.
But alas. I was just a kid. What did I know about such things that adults many times smarter than I had already thought through.
Radio was - and is - different from television. Some people do well on radio, but you put them on the tv, and they fail. Radio talk show hosts are one example that comes to mind.
Could the JWs own a radio station these days? No. Why? Several reasons. First and primary, radio is local. Regional. Here in south Texas, there is no way that I could pick up a radio station on Staton Island, NY. Even if it were a 50kW clear channel radio station like the local WOAI 1200 AM is. In order to cover the country, they would need to own several stations across the US.
Second, radio stations need to be licensed and monitored by the FCC. That involves the 'government' that the JWs are so against.
Third, it also requires that they provide public service announcements - per the FCC. This would mean that they give a little control to the public. Not gonna happen.
It is possible that they could put together an hour of preaching and take that to the local radio stations and get it on the air. I remember working in radio, the station I worked at had a preached come in during the week and record his sermon, and then it would get air-time on Sunday morning. Of course, I think that he paid for that air-time. We also received 33RPMs of sermons from preachers out of state - trying to get air-time. Those usually got tossed.
I suppose, in this day and age, they could put together an Internet 'radio' station that is not government regulated, and can be heard globally.
As for television - even on the internet, they need to avoid that venue. Totally.
I think someone else hit the proverbial nail on the head... with the beliefs changing as frequently as they now seem to be doing, the JWs would be doing themselves a great injustice recording anything that could then be replayed at a later date that might could be pointed out to them... 'Hey! You changed what you said 6 months ago!"
Awkward...
Personally, I feel that they should offer rocks for sale through their web site. People could then buy them and toss them in their yards. Or their neighbors' yard.
After all... it's their own idea that their great and mighty Jeehover could make the rocks cry out with his message, if he wanted to. (At least that's what my ex-wife told me when I pointed out that there were not that many witnesses in China.)
Great topic Terry!
Regards,
Jim TX
