Ralph Emery, famed country music broadcaster, dies at 88

[left-of-center2012]

Source: AP

Ralph Emery, who became known as the dean of country music broadcasters over more than a half-century in both radio and television, died Saturday, his family said. He was 88. Emery passed away peacefully of natural causes, surrounded by family, at Tristar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, his son, Michael, told The Associated Press. He had been hospitalized for a week.

Beginning his career at small radio stations and then moving into television as well, Emery was probably best known for his work on the Nashville Network cable channel. From 1983 to 1993, he was host of the channel’s live talk-variety show “Nashville Now,” earning the title “the Johnny Carson of cable television” for his interviewing style. From 2007 to 2015, Emery hosted a weekly program on RFD-TV, a satellite and cable TV channel.

“Ralph Emery’s impact in expanding country music’s audience is incalculable,” said Kyle Young, CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, in a statement Saturday. “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.”

He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-music-television-arts-and-entertainment-country-music-dd4ded7a0d354cd2e501feec09221205

---

Ralph Emery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Emery

[Ishoutandscream2]

1. Goodness. I thought he had already passed

RIP

[VGNonly]

2. Drug Store Truck Driving Man

[left-of-center2012]

3. "This one's for you, Ralph"

“He's a drug store truck drivin' man
He's the head of the Ku Klux Klan
When summer rolls around
He'll be lucky if he's not in town

This one's for you, Ralph”
..................................................................

Roger McGuinn and Gram Parsons penned "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man".

The song had been written by the pair in London in May 1968, before Parsons' departure from the band (The Byrds), and was inspired by the hostility shown towards the Byrds by legendary Nashville DJ Ralph Emery when they appeared on his WSM radio program.

The song's barbed lyric contains a volley of Redneck stereotypes, set to a classic country 3/4 time signature and begins with the couplet, "He's a drug store truck drivin' man/He's the head of the Ku Klux Klan."

Emery was not, in fact, a Klansman.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Byrds_%26_Mr._Hyde

[The Grand Illuminist]

4. I remember him as far back as..

The syndicated series called Pop Goes The Country.