RALPH
EMERY Ralph
Emery (Born McEwen TN), became the dominant disc jockey
in country music in the late twentieth century. After
graduating high school, Emery enrolled in the Tennessee
School of Broadcasting, where he took classes with
legendary WLAC radio star John Richbourg. WTPR in Paris,
TN, hired Emery in 1951 at the recommendation of Richbourg.
After stops at WNAH in Nashville TN and WAGG in Franklin
TN , Emery joined WSIX in Nashville, where he had a
successful country music radio show WSIX Nashville
TN a. After working briefly at a Baton Rouge station,
he returned for a new position at Nashville's WMAK
radio.Emery's career break came in 1957 when powerful
WSM radio in Nashville hired him to do the late-night
Opry Star Spotlight show. Within months, Emery made
the show successful and turned it into an important
vehicle for aspiring artists. WSM was the base of Emery's
career and reputation for the next twenty-plus years.
The 1960s and 1970s witnessed Emery's height as a country
music disc jockey. He began as an announcer on the
Grand Ole Opry in 1961; he launched a successful morning
television program on sister station WSM-TV (later
WSMV); he had a memorable live radio program with western
movie star Tex Ritter; and he established popular radio
and television syndication programs. In 1982 WSM established
The Nashville Network, a national cable channel devoted
to country music. Emery naturally was one of the broadcasting
stars and his nightly interview and performance program,
Nashville Now, made Emery famous across the nation.
It ran on the network from 1983 to 1993. Ralph Emery
was inducted into the Country Music D J Hall of Fame
in 1989. He has written four books on Country music,
including the New York Times bestseller “Memories;
The Autobiography of Ralph Emery”.
