Imus ranch sold to Nebraska TV mogul

The 3,400-acre New Mexico ranch overseen by controversial radio personality Don Imus was purchased Thursday by an ex-farmer who became a cable TV mogul known for bringing programs with rural themes to the heartland. The buyer is Patrick Gottsch, whose Rural Media Group and Rural Free Delivery Television are based in Omaha, Neb. Bell Tower Keller-Williams listing agent Craig Huitfeldt and Jay Moore, owner of the Las Vegas-based New Mexico Land and Title Co. that closed the deal, confirmed the sale, but neither would give the price. The last listed price for the property was $19 million. The sale price “wasn’t far off” that figure, Huitfeld said. Gottsch could n ot be reached for comment. Gottsch was raised on a farm in Elkhorn, Neb., “and learned firsthand the importance rural America plays in the everyday lives of Americans,” states his Rural Free Delivery Television website. After attending college in Texas, Gottsch moved to Chicago, where he worked as a commodity broker for Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He returned to Nebraska and started E.T. Installations, which introduced more than 2,000 satellite dishes in the Midwest. Moving on to Fort Worth, Texas, he was the director of sales of the Superior Livestock Auction. In 1988, he launched the RFD-TV, a 24-hour rural television network, that later expanded and distributed programming to various cable providers. It is now available in more than 50 million homes nationwide, the network’s website states. His company, Rural Media Group Inc., also operates Rural Radio 147 and RFD-TV The Magazine. His television network also airs The American, an annual event said to be “the world’s richest one-day rodeo.”...MORE