Ralph Emery. Photo: Courtesy of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Country Music Hall of Fame member and legendary radio star Ralph Emery passed away today (Jan. 15). He was 88.
Emery was an original taste-maker for country music. The National Radio Hall of Famer began his career at small-market radio stations in Tennessee before going on to become the most renowned TV and radio personality in country music.
He was born on March 10, 1933, in McEwen, Tennessee.
Emery gained national fame while hosting the syndicated television music series, Pop! Goes the Country, from 1974 to 1980 and the nightly Nashville Network television program, Nashville Now, from 1983 to 1993. Emery also hosted Ralph Emery Live on RFD-TV every week from rom 2007 to 2015.
He was lovingly dubbed “the Dick Clark of country music” and “the Johnny Carson of cable television.” Emery was inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame in 1989, Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007 and the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2010.
Emery is survived by his wife, Joy Emery, his three sons, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Memorial arrangements have not yet been announced.
“Ralph Emery’s impact in expanding country music’s audience is incalculable,” comments Kyle Young, CEO, Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. “On radio and on television, he allowed fans to get to know the people behind the songs. Ralph was more a grand conversationalist than a calculated interviewer, and it was his conversations that revealed the humor and humanity of Tom T. Hall, Barbara Mandrell, Tex Ritter, Marty Robbins and many more. Above all, he believed in music and in the people who make it.”
Full obituary coming…
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