February 6, 2020

Ray Stevens: March 24th WCTE Dinner, Press Release...

Hello all...I was performing an image search of Ray Stevens about 20 minutes ago and I came across an image of a press release from a site called the Upper Cumberland Reporter. I clicked the image and was taken to an on-line newspaper website displaying a press release from PBS station WCTE. The document shown that it was written on January 29, 2020 for immediate release while the on-line site shows it was uploaded onto the internet on January 31, 2020. In the last several days of routinely searching the internet for Ray Stevens images, etc. I never once came across an image of a press release until this morning and so I decided to write a blog entry to share the link with all of you. I have written two previous blog entries about the WCTE dinner that Ray is going to perform a concert at and I included several links to information concerning ticket prices and everything else. This press release will also give you information on where to get tickets and it also includes a phone number and e-mail address. You can read the press release by clicking HERE.

CabaRay Nashville title card
The weekly television series hosted by Ray Stevens, CabaRay Nashville, is syndicated on local PBS stations across the country. The current station that handles the distribution of the series is WCTE. The weekly series is in a hiatus, as of this writing, but to date there have been 78 half hour episodes produced as well as a one hour special which often airs during annual PBS pledge breaks. I have a DVD of the documentary special from a local PBS station in my area that airs Ray's television show every Saturday night at 8:30pm. The DVD features the documentary, narrated by Bill Cody, in addition there's a lot of behind the scenes bonus footage as well as exclusive performances which didn't make the final cut from some of the special guests. The half hour bonus footage isn't part of the hour long special and can only be seen on the DVD. If your PBS station airs Ray's television series then you should be able to get the DVD through them as a donation gift or you can at least inquire about it's availability. It isn't sold on Ray's website and you won't be able to find it in any mass merchant on-line store. The webpage for a local PBS station in Nashville, WNPT, currently has this DVD special listed on their site as a donation gift. 

There is a phone number listed at the bottom of the WNPT product page for the DVD you see off to the left. Call that number to see if this DVD is actually still available as a gift. It's been a couple of years since it was released and I don't know if their gift donation page is updated...it should be accurate but call just in case. If it's still available you can pay a one-time donation or you can spread it out over a period of months. You can find all that information, including a phone number to call for more details, by clicking HERE. I don't have the time to look up the local PBS stations carrying his show because they're scattered throughout the country but I lucked out at finding the DVD listed in the Gift section of WNPT's website. It's a fascinating documentary. Although long time fans such as myself perhaps weren't being told anything revealing or new the presentation is spectacular and the footage is a must for all fans of Ray Stevens. The reverent style of Bill Cody's narration is also a plus. I don't mention that PBS television special too much in my blog entries given the obscure and exclusive nature surrounding it...but I decided to make mention of it in this blog entry just in case there are people who do not know that it exists. In the meantime don't forget to click the link at the top of this blog entry to read the press release of the Ray Stevens concert on March 24th for WCTE.

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