March 4, 2016
Buddy Kalb
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RFD-TV) - Ray Stevens is a talented musician, arranger, writer, singer, etc., etc. and he is a magnet for other talent in Nashville. Ray has surrounded himself with an A-List of the Best of Nashville and the proof is the wonderful music and energetic but relaxed pace of his show on RFD-TV....Ray Stevens’ Nashville.
“Putting the Show together is really a Team effort” says the multiple Grammy winner and 9 time recipient of Comedian of the Year honors. “My friend Buddy and I write the basic show outlines and then I pass the music on to Jerry Kimbrough to produce charts for the band.”
“While I’m busy rehearsing my songs with the Band and our Background Singers as well as all of the lead-ins and play-offs etc. the Production Staff is busy booking Guests and finding out what songs they want to perform so we can write charts on those and rehearse them with the Band and Singers too.”
Once all of the music is ready and Buddy and I have talked with the Guests about what we want to discuss on the show then finalize the script and it’s “Lights....Camera....Action” until we have done about 13 Shows in 5 or 6 long hard days.
“It’s a fast little 30 minute show but it takes all of these talented people to help me make it look easy.”
After the Shows are shot and all of the elements are in the can Russ Sturgeon, Pam Repp and Cindy Sinclair begin to assemble the show under Ray’s watchful eye and then pass it on to Ray and his Engineer Ben Surratt who work to make the sound as good as it can possibly be. While they are improving the sound in the Studio they also bring in Bill Cody to do his Voice Over work that leads into and out of Commercial Breaks.
Then, speaking of the Commercial Spots, they are inserted in the Show and after the Closed Captioning is added, the Shows are sent off to RFD-TV to be reviewed for content by their Standards and Practices Department before they are sent on to be scheduled for airing.
“It’s a fun process” says Stevens “And I’m lucky to have all of these talented people around me. If you are as interested in TV Production as I am you should try to schedule a trip to Nashville when we are shooting and make arrangements to be in the audience and see how we do it. Who knows, I might even ask you to dance.....just the Ladies of course.”
Watch Ray Stevens’ Nashville Saturdays at 8:30 PM ET on RFD-TV.
