22/10/2024
In September 1951, an 18-year-old graduate of WLAC-AM legend “John R” Richbourg’s Tennessee School of Broadcasting started his first radio job in Nashville. Ralph Emery, fresh off a stint for a 250-watt station in Paris, Tennessee, took over the afternoon “Music Shop” show at two-year-old WNAH-AM.
Within a couple weeks, Ralph got engaged to fellow East High School graduate Betty Felhofer. The two wed on December 2, 1951, at Edgefield Baptist Church.
By that point, young Ralph was all over WNAH, picking up the morning “Rise’n Shine” show and creating “Meet the Coach,” where he’d chat up a different area high-school football coach each Friday. “Music Shop” gave way to “Melody Houseparty” then “General Store of the Air,” where Ralph assumed the character of a store proprietor who offered bargain hints and spun discs. Ralph’s other shows during his time at WNAH included, “23 Skidoo Revue,” which appears to have been an oldies show, “Hollywood Calling,” and “Ralph Emery’s Sportsreel.” When Betty got pregnant, Ralph went on the air and asked listeners to suggest names for the child. (The couple opted for William Steven Emery.)
Ralph left WNAH-AM in 1953 for an eight-month run at WAGG-FM in Franklin before returning to Nashville that November to handle the early-a.m. farm program on WSIX-AM, one of the city’s most prominent stations.
Sometime in the mid-1950s, the Emerys bought a house at 1514 Wendell Avenue in Inglewood. Ralph’s star continued to rise, but his family life was falling apart. Ralph filed divorce in 1956, claiming that Betty habitually humiliated him “by apologizing to their acquaintances” for having a husband who announced “hillbilly and rock-and-roll shows.”
At the time, Ralph wasn’t really announcing hillbilly shows and records all that much, though that would change in November 1957, when he joined the staff of 50,000-watt clear-channel powerhouse WSM-AM, taking over “Opry Star Spotlight” and the overnight shift, which he would soon turn into the most powerful radio show in country music.
Ralph and Betty eventually divorced in 1960. In the settlement, Betty got the house on Wendell. Ralph got the recording equipment and a 1958 Oldsmobile.
