Walter Ralph Emery (March 10, 1933 – January 15, 2022) was an American
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...
disc jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...
, radio and television host from
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and t ...
.
Emery promoted numerous stars on his radio and TV shows, and was called the
Dick Clark
Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American radio and television personality, television producer and film actor, as well as a cultural icon who remains best known for hosting ''American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 198 ...
of country music
He gained national fame hosting the
syndicated television
Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States where ...
music series, ''
Pop! Goes the Country'', from 1974 to 1980 and the nightly
Nashville Network television program, ''
Nashville Now
''Nashville Now'' was an American talk show that focused on country music performers in the style of ''The Tonight Show''. The show aired live on weeknights on TNN from 1983–1993. The host was Nashville TV/radio personality Ralph Emery. The sh ...
'', from 1983 to 1993. From 2007 to 2015, Emery hosted the weekly program, ''Ralph Emery Live'', on
RFD-TV
RFD-TV is an American pay television channel owned by Rural Media Group, Inc. The channel features programming devoted to rural issues, concerns and interests. The channel's name is a reference to Rural Free Delivery, the name for the United St ...
, a satellite and cable television channel devoted to rural American culture.
Life and career
Walter Ralph Emery worked as an usher in a downtown Nashville movie theater and as a Kroger stock boy as a teenager, saving money to attend the Tennessee School of Broadcasting under the instruction of Nashville radio legend John Richbourg.
He first earned fame as the late-night disc jockey on Nashville's
WSM. Due to the clear-channel broadcasting range of the station at night, Emery's country music show could be heard over most of the Eastern and Central U.S. – and by many overnight long-haul
truck drivers
A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster, or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; a HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...
, who were often fans of country music. The all-night show was a mecca for country music stars of all kinds, many of whom were personal friends of Emery. One in particular was singer and movie star, and Nashville resident,
Tex Ritter
Woodward Maurice Ritter (January 12, 1905 – January 2, 1974) was a pioneer of American country music, a popular singer and actor from the mid-1930s into the 1960s, and the patriarch of the Ritter acting family (son John, grandsons Jason an ...
, who co-hosted the show with Emery for a while. Well-known stars, most notably
Marty Robbins
Martin David Robinson (September 26, 1925 – December 8, 1982), known professionally as Marty Robbins, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, multi-instrumentalist, and NASCAR racing driver. Robbins was one of the most popular and suc ...
, would often drop in unannounced. Emery later wrote several best-selling books chronicling his memories of the many Nashville singers and musicians that appeared on his various radio and TV shows. The second of Emery's three wives was Opry star
Skeeter Davis
Skeeter Davis (born Mary Frances Penick; December 30, 1931September 19, 2004) was an American country music singer and songwriter who sang crossover pop music songs including 1962's " The End of the World". She started out as part of the Davis ...
.
He hosted a late-afternoon program on
WSM-TV in the late 1960s, ''Sixteenth Avenue South'' (named for one of the streets on Nashville's famed
Music Row
Music Row is a historic district located southwest of downtown Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Widely considered the heart of Nashville's entertainment industry, Music Row has also become a metonymous nickname for the music industry as a w ...
of recording studios), with the same format. Owing to the morning show's popularity and demands on his time, Emery ended his long run on the overnight shift on WSM radio in 1972;
Hairl Hensley replaced him and went on to a thirty-year career with the station. In 1971, Emery began hosting his eponymous radio show, a weekly,
syndicated
Syndication may refer to:
* Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system
* Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips
* Web syndication, ...
show that aired daily on country stations in five parts Mondays through Fridays; it lasted until the 1980s. From the mid-1960s until the early 1990s (except for several years in the 1960s when hosted by country singer
Bobby Lord
Robert Lester Lord (January 6, 1934 – February 16, 2008), better known as Bobby Lord, was an American country music artist popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
Biography
Lord was born January 6, 1934, in Sanford, Florida, but grew up in Tampa. As ...
and a two-year period between 1970 and 1972), Emery also hosted a weekday morning show, ''Opry Almanac'' (later dubbed ''The Ralph Emery Show''), on
WSMV, which featured an in-studio band of local session musicians and aspiring singers (including
The Judds
The Judds were an American country music duo composed of lead vocalist Wynonna Judd and her mother, Naomi Judd. The duo signed to RCA Nashville in 1983 and released six studio albums between then and 1991. The Judds were one of the most success ...
and
Lorrie Morgan
Loretta Lynn Morgan (born June 27, 1959) is an American country music singer and actress. She is the daughter of George Morgan, widow of Keith Whitley, and ex-wife of Jon Randall and Sammy Kershaw, all of whom are also country music singers. ...
), along with news and weather updates and in-studio live commercials. It became the highest-rated local morning television program in the U.S. for some years in the 1970s and 1980s. His eye and ear for talent was inclusive in breaking color barriers and started the careers of younger
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
singers such a
J.P.Netters who was included as a part of his studio band in the early 1980s.
The song
"Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man" details an unpleasant on-air exchange between Emery,
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn (born James Joseph McGuinn III; July 13, 1942) is an American musician. He is best known for being the frontman and leader of the Byrds. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his work with the Byrds. As ...
and
Gram Parsons
Ingram Cecil Connor III (November 5, 1946 – September 19, 1973) who was known professionally as Gram Parsons, was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and pianist who recorded as a solo artist and with the International Submarine Band, ...
of the 1960s rock group
The Byrds
The Byrds () were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) remaining the sole con ...
, concerning their 1968 appearance at
The Grand Ole Opry. In that performance, the Byrds attempted unsuccessfully to convince traditional country music fans that their sound was a legitimate part of the country rock tradition but were met with jeers and catcalls. Years later, there was some reconciliation and even convergence of the opposing styles in the "
Outlaw
An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...
" movement, popularized by the likes of
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album ''Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of '' Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and ''Stardust'' (1978 ...
and
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He pioneered the Outlaw Movement in country music.
Jennings started playing guitar at the age of eight and performed at age f ...
.
In 2001, Emery attempted a television comeback on Nashville
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelv ...
affiliate
WZTV, with a show called ''Mornings with Ralph Emery'', but only spent seven days on the air before being sidelined first by continuing coverage of the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
and then an illness. The show continued with replacement host
Charlie Chase, using the title ''Tennessee Mornings''. In October 2005, Emery launched ''The Nashville Show,'' a free weekly
webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand. Essentially, web ...
with Shotgun Red as co-host. He then returned to television on the
RFD-TV
RFD-TV is an American pay television channel owned by Rural Media Group, Inc. The channel features programming devoted to rural issues, concerns and interests. The channel's name is a reference to Rural Free Delivery, the name for the United St ...
cable network in mid-2007, conducting interviews on the show ''Ralph Emery Live''. The show aired live every Monday evening at 7:00 PM Eastern.
The show ran for eight years, at some point changing its name to ''Ralph Emery's Memories'', ending its run in October 2015.
Honors
Emery was among the 2007 inductees to the
Country Music Hall of Fame
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, is one of the world's largest museums and research centers dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of American vernacular music. Chartered in 1964, the museum has amas ...
, and in 2010 he was inducted into the
National Radio Hall of Fame
The Radio Hall of Fame, formerly the National Radio Hall of Fame, is an American organization created by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988.
Three years later, Bruce DuMont, founder, president, and CEO of the Museum of Broadcast Communicatio ...
.
Death
Emery died at a hospital in Nashville on January 15, 2022, at the age of 88, after a brief illness.
Albums
* 1989 ''Songs for Children'' (with
Shotgun Red) (
RCA Records
RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also ...
)
Singles
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Emery, Ralph
1933 births
2022 deaths
American radio personalities
American country singer-songwriters
Country Music Hall of Fame inductees
Members of the Country Music Association
Liberty Records artists
People from Humphreys County, Tennessee
Singer-songwriters from Tennessee