The radio and television personality hosted live talk-variety show 'Nashville Now' for a decade.
He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007.
“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.
Born on March 10, 1933 in McEwen, Tennessee, Emery attended broadcasting school in Nashville and got his first radio job at WTPR in Paris, Tennessee. He later worked at radio stations in Louisiana and the Nashville area before signing on at Nashville’s WSM in 1957.The View From Nashville: On the Record with Country Music’s Greatest Stars, a syndicated TV show, from 1974 through 1980.