WATCHTOWER RELATED WBBR Lapel pin JEHOVAH LOOK

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Hello Friends and thanks for having a look. WBBR gold looking lapel pin. Real nice looking pin with no imperfections. It is about 1" in width and is stunning in appearance! This pin will be of some interest to those appreciating the history of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, please note what the 1975 yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses had to say about the old WBBR radio station starting on page 139... A RADIO PIONEER LIFTS UP ITS VOICE “Radio Tells the World Millennium Is Coming,” declared the Philadelphia Record of April 17, 1922, continuing: “Judge Rutherford’s Lecture Broadcasted from Metropolitan Opera House. Talks into Transmitter. Message is Carried Over Miles of Bell Telephone Wires to Howlett’s Station.” So began a newspaper report of J. F. Rutherford’s first radio address, given on Sunday, April 16, 1922, at the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The subject? “Millions Now Living Will Never Die.” His visible audience was a mere handful compared with an estimated 50,000 residents of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware who heard the speech on primitive radios in their homes. Those were the early days of radio communication. In the United States it was not until 1920 that regular commercial radio broadcasts were made from Pittsburgh’s station KDKA and WWJ of Detroit, Michigan. A person could then buy a factory-built crystal set with earphones, but not until the 1930’s were radios with built-in loudspeakers and aerials produced. Jehovah’s servants of the early 1920’s were relatively few in number. By 1924 in the United States t were, on the average, only 1,064 Bible Students preaching from house to house weekly. So, during that period God’s people recognized the far-reaching effects of radio and considered it a fine means of reaching the masses with the Kingdom message. In 1922 J. F. Rutherford and a few advisers first took claim to some twenty-four acres on Staten Island in New York city’s Borough of Richmond. Taking us back to that interesting time, Lloyd Burtch once stated: “One Saturday afternoon the president of the Society, Brother Rutherford, took some of us with him to Staten Island. Upon arriving at the property that had been purchased, he pointed to a spot in the heart of the woods on the land and said: ‘All right, boys. is w we start digging. We are going to build a radio station on our land.’ And did we dig! Every weekend during that summer we were at it.” Throughout the winter and on into the summer of 1923 construction went on apace, many young men from the Society’s headquarters in Brooklyn assisting on weekends. In 1923 Ralph H. Leffler was teaching radio theory at the Alliance, Ohio, high school. One day he received a letter from the president’s office of the Watch Tower Society. It asked: “Noting that you are a teacher of radio . . . would you consider devoting all your time in the Lord’s service in this behalf?” Brother Leffler clearly saw Jehovah’s hand in this and could not refuse to accept this opportunity. By mid-October he arrived at Bethel and was put to work washing dishes! “Had I not had enough of washing dishes in the army? thought I,” he later wrote. “Then I remembered the scripture: ‘The LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.’ (Deut. 13:3, AV) Yes, this is another test, I concluded.” But a month later he got started on radio work. “A 500-watt composite radio transmitter was located in the city and purchased for the station,” Brother Leffler recalls. This he quickly installed and all was ready for the first broadcast. “Emotions were running high,” admits Brother Leffler. “Would the first broadcast be a success? Would anyone be able to hear us? License from the government to broadcast had been obtained. And the call letters assigned were WBBR . All was now ready for the first broadcast. That occurred on Sunday evening, February 24, 1924. It was my privilege to throw the power switc... read more

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