J. Bazzel Mull
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Jacob Bazzel Mull (4 October 1914 — 5 September 2006) was a Christian minister and religious broadcaster in East Tennessee.
Mull was born in Burke County, North Carolina. He was the grandson of Wallace B. Mull, a circuit riding preacher in the 1800s.
His parents and siblings had formed a gospel music group, The Valdese Sacred Band, and Mull played banjo in the group as a child.
Mull began preaching in 1932. He had been legally blind since the age of 11 months, after an accidental fall into a fireplace had damaged his eyesight. He memorized verses from the Bible as someone read them aloud.
In 1939, Mull began preaching on radio stations in North Carolina. In 1942 he began a gospel music program on two AM radio stations in Knoxville, Tennessee, WROL and WNOX. He later bought a FM station in Knoxville, WJBZ, which he nicknamed Praise 96.3.
Mull also branched into television in the 1950s. He hosted an hour-long gospel music program, The Mull Singing Convention, on Knoxville television, first on WBIR-TV and later on WVLT-TV. Mull's gospel music program was also broadcast in Chattanooga, originally on WRGP-TV when that station went on the air in 1956. Mull's show moved to WTVC when it began broadcasting in 1959.
Mull was inducted into the Southern Gospel Hall of Fame in 2003.
