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Ralph Emery as host of Pop! Goes the Country

Walter Ralph Emery (born March 10, 1933, McEwen, Tennessee) is a famous country music disk jockey and television host from Nashville, Tennessee. He gained national fame hosting the syndicated music series Pop! Goes the Country from 1974 to 1980, and Nashville Now - the cornerstone live nightly program of The Nashville Network - from 1983 to 1993.

Emery earned his first national fame as the late-night 'disc jockey' on Nashville's venerable AM radio station WSM. Due to the 'clear-channel' broadcasting range of the station at night, Emery's country-music radio show could be heard over much of the southern and central U.S.--especially by many an overnight long-haul truck driver, who were often fans of country music. The "all nite" show was a mecca for country music stars of all kinds, many of whom were close personal friends of Emery. One in particular was singer and movie star, and Nashville resident, Tex Ritter. Tex and others, most notably Marty Robbins, would often drop in totally unannounced, sit down, and start talking. Tex, for one, was usually "on the sauce" (inebriated), but that just made him more entertaining. On his show, Emery gave national exposure to many up-and-coming and previously unknown country music singers, for which these singers often owed their careers to. Emery later wrote two best-selling books, and is presently working on a third, chronicling memories of the many Nashville singers and musicians that appeared on his shows.

Emery is credited for developing the gab of NASCAR driver (and middle Tennessean) Darrell Waltrip, who was a frequent guest on his late-night radio show during his early days racing in Nashville. That eventually led to substitute gigs on WSM and Nashville Now.

Emery attained his greatest popularity on Nashville Now, with his rich voice and easy affability with guests making the show a national phenomenon. He would converse with a wide range of country music stars from all eras, and also used a Muppet-like 'co-host,' "Shotgun Red," during several seasons.

From the mid-1960s until the early 1990s, Emery also hosted a weekday morning show on WSM television (now WSMV), which, until the early 1980s, was a sister property of WSM radio. The program, which featured an in-studio band of local session musicians and aspiring singers (among them a teenaged Lorrie Morgan, daughter of Emery's longtime friend, Grand Ole Opry star George Morgan) along with news and weather updates and in-studio commercials, became the highest-rated local morning television program in the U.S. for some years in the 1970s and 1980s. Emery also hosted a late-afternoon program on WSM-TV in the late 1960s, "Sixteenth Avenue South" (named for one of the streets on Nashville's famed Music Row of recording studios), with the same format. Because of the morning show's popularity and demands on his time, Emery ended his long run on the overnight shift on WSM radio in 1972.

In 2001, Emery attempted a television comeback on FOX affiliate WZTV, but an illness sidelined him, and substitute host Charlie Chase took over "Tennessee Mornings" permanently. In October 2005, Emery launched "The Nashville Show," a free weekly webcast with Shotgun Red as co-host.

The second of Emery's three wives was Opry star Skeeter Davis.

The song, "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man" details a moderately unpleasant on-air exchange between Emery and Roger McGuinn, the lead singer of 60s rock group The Byrds concerning their 1968 appearance at The Grand Ole Opry.

• RalphEmery.com

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