Paul C. Jones recalls the beginning of Old Camp Meetin’ Time and its original sponsor, Gobler Mercantile Co.
Ray Van was the original host of Old Camp Meetin’ Time but Rudy Pylant made the show his own when he took over and “Mr. Rudy” became a local celebrity. For years Mr. Rudy opened the show with Old Camp Meetin’ Time. Not certain of the version he used but believe it was Grandpa Jones and The Brown’s Ferry Four.
Joe Bankhead on the origins of Old Camp Meetin’ Time:
“Gobler Mercantile Company was a weathered building of corrugated tin siding, a gravel parking lot in front, a user-worn front porch and a much larger interior which belied its initial appearance from the road. Denny (Mitchell) had a sizeable inventory of groceries, dry goods, clothing items, shelves of hardware a small refrigerated section for milk, cheese and other dairy products, and aspirations of the giant that his business was to become. As an initial introduction to the statio audience, Denny simply wanted to introduce his location, his low-overhead pricing structure, and to designate Gobler Mercantile as “Missouri’s Largest Country Store.”
“We started with a schedule of ten spots per day, a number which was unheard of in the short period of KBOA’s existence. Denny initially started with his on copy, read beautifully by Ran Van and implying “Gobler Mercantile Company located four miles south of Highway 84 on the Pemiscot-Dunklin County line road… Missouri’s largest country store…where prices are made, not followed!” Then would follow a list of items priced appreciably lower than normally offered merchandise by other stores.”
“Was it effective? Soon, Gobler Mercantile was the talk of southeast Missouri and northeast Arkansas. Families came by the hundreds, then thousands, swallowing Denny Mitchell with a sudden influx of demand for merchandise that soon required 18-wheeler trucks to supply on a regular weekly or even daily basis.”
“Within a few weeks, Denny decided to expand his radio coverage to a half-hour, then a full hour program which he wanted called “Old Camp Meeting Time!” This was all new to me, camp-meetings, that is, so I called on Ray Van to accompany me to Gobler to get with Denny and formulate the program that was to become the most popular, talked-about, successful radio program that has ever been witnessed in the midwest. Denny Mitchell was on his way to his “Giant” among country stores. The physical store itself expanded to five or six additional corrugated tin additions, enclosing a huge inventory of building supplies, appliances, (including) the new phenomenon, television, plumbing supplies and just about everything that old Sam Walton envisioned in his new idea for WalMart. Denny was so big he owned and operated his own fleet of 18-wheelers, just to supply goods for his giant operation.”