Patrick Gottsch, the Founder and President of Rural Media Group, passed away over the weekend at the age of 70. He was a champion of Rural America, devoting more than half his life to empowering farmers and ranchers, giving them a voice at the table. We are grateful for his leadership and innovation.
There has been an outpour of love, support, and condolences from friends, industry partners, western sports figures, and country music stars.
Recently, the Queen of Country Music and Tennessee, Dolly Parton, shared a message with us.
She stated:
“There are those people that will live on forever, and Patrick is definitely one of those people. Patrick changed the course of many people’s lives by providing all the wonderful entertainment that everybody could enjoy— especially rural people, as I am!”
Dolly Parton
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We are remembering his enduring legacy and contributions to the farming, ranching and rodeo community.
Patrick Gottsch, founder and chairman of RFD-TV, testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in May 2014. Read his full testimony: “Competition in the Video and Broadband Markets: the Proposed Merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable.”
Rural Media Group founder Patrick Gottsch shares the substantial number of program schedule changes on RFD-TV, RURAL TV, and FamilyNet coming in 2014 —the most in our company’s history.