Remembering Ralph Emery: Famed country music broadcaster was 88

Ralph Emery pictured in a black-and-white headshot provided by Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Facebook account

Ralph Emery, the country music disc jockey and television host who came to prominence on Nashville’s WSM, died on Saturday, January 15th, 2022, while surrounded by family at Nashville’s Tristar Centennial Medical Center, according to the Associated Press.

Emery studied in broadcasting school under the legendary Nashville radio personality John R (born John Richbourg) and found his first broadcasting job at Paris, Tennessee’s WTPR. Later on, he would be tapped for roles at stations including WNAH, WAGG, WLCS, WMAK and WSIX, finding at the latter his first full-time radio gig and his first affiliation with a network (ABC), as well as his first experience in television, as a wrestling announcer for WSIX-TV.

Born on March 10, 1933 in McEwen, Tennessee, Emery was an inductee of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the National Radio Hall of Fame who served as WSM’s all-night disc jockey from 1957 to 1972, there hosting live performances by, and interviews with country music notables including Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson and Marty Robbins. Throughout his 50-plus year career, he also hosted syndicated music programs including Pop! Goes The Country, Nashville Now, Ralph Emery Live and Ralph Emery’s Memories, among others.

Emery was also an author who published the autobiography Memories in 1991, as well as such titles as More Memories (1993) and The View From Nashville: On the Record with Country Music’s Greatest Stars (1998).

Ralph Emery was 88 years old.

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SOURCE: Matt Grobar of Deadline Hollywood