Ralph Emery, a longtime country music broadcaster and a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, has died. He was 88.
Emery’s passing was first reported on Saturday (Nov. 15) by the Tennessean, with a statement from his family that said he “passed away peacefully” that morning at Tristar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville. His cause of death has not been revealed.
Emery, born in 1933 in McEwen, Tennessee, had a successful career in the country music industry for more than 50 years, working in radio before shifting to television. Known as the dean of country music broadcasters, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Country Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame in 1989.
He notably interviewed a number of country music stars as the host of the Nashville Network talk show Nashville Now over the course of a decade, from 1983 to 1993.Throughout the years, Emery also hosted the syndicated TV series Pop Goes the Country (1974 to 1980) and the live show Nashville Alive on WTBS (1981 to 1983). From 2007 to 2015, he hosted the weekly program Ralph Emery Live on satellite and cable television channel RFD-TV.
