Ryman Hospitality Properties

The Oklahoma Publishing Company, owned by the Gaylord and Dickinson families, in 1928 purchased a radio station, WKY, which started the company's involvement in broadcasting. Cofounder Edward King Gaylord led the prospering publishing company into television broadcasting with the sign-on of WKY-TV on June 6, 1949 and became its focus in the next two decades when the company maxed out at seven stations with the 1962 acquisition of KTVT in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. Thus the company set up the Gaylord Broadcasting for its broadcasting stations.[2]

Cofounder Gaylord led the media mini-conglomerate through to a prosperous 1970s in which he died in 1974 at age 101 leaving leadership of the companies to his son, Edward L. Gaylord. In 1974, the company purchased another television station KSTW in Seattle.[2]

Gaylord Broadcasting formed Gaylord Productions in 1979 to enter TV and film opening an office in Century City, Los Angeles and hired Elmo Williams as executive vice president. In 1981, Gaylord Productions purchased Yongestreet Productions, producer of the long-running television series Hee Haw from its creators Peppiatt and Aylesworth. With the purchase of Yongestreet, Williams became president of Gaylord Productions' movie division while Alan Courtney becoming president of its TV division.[3] Gaylord continued to produce and distribute the show until it ended its run in 1997.

The company was aware of Opry business's expansion in the 1970s and early 1980s with Edward considering that company as a fit for Gaylord Broadcasting.[2] With that business put up for sale by its parent, American General, Gaylord Broadcasting agreed to buy Opry properties in September 1983.[2][4] The new acquisitions, including the just launched The Nashville Network, were renamed and incorporated into Opryland USA, Inc. and continued under existing management.[2][4] Gaylord followed up that acquisition with an attempted to purchased the Texas Rangers to no avail.[2]

Opryland USA started Gaylord Syndicom division on July 15, 1984 to develop syndicated TV programs.[4] While in 1985, Acuff-Rose Music was acquired[5] by its Opryland Music Group[6] Gaylord opened in 1985 the General Jackson river and paddle-wheel showboat.[2]

With Opryland efforts producing success, Gaylord had his organization focus on Opryland in the late 1980s while TV operation increased profits during that time. Gaylord Broadcasting was able to sell television stations WTVT in Tampa and WVUE in New Orleans for $365 million in 1987 while getting a $100 million tax credit for selling to a minority-owned company with the condition that the proceeds are rolled into a media-released purchases within two years. However, to meet the deadline, Gaylord overpaid for a California cable television company and incurred a heavy debt load.[2]

Corporate logo as Gaylord Entertainment Company, 2001–2012

Gaylord Entertainment Company was formed on October 24, 1991 as the company went public.[4] The new company consisted of Oklahoma Publishing Company's broadcasting and entertainment holdings. 22% of the stock was sold to the public while Gaylord retain 66% and voting control. Also during the public offering period, the company laid out expansion plans for hotel and theme park plus a Ryman Auditorium renovation.[2]

A controlling stake in Country Music Television was purchased in January 1991 with Group W Satellite Communications buying the remaining stock. CMT move to Opryland Drive, Nashville.[2][7] The cable channel was taken into Europe in 1992.[2] CMT Euro was launched in October 1992. In July 1993, Gaylord reorganized placing all its cable channels, CMT, CMT Europe and TNN in a division under a senior Vice president, David Hall.[8]

Gaylord purchased a 30% stake in Bass Pro Shops in 1993 from Bass Pro Group.[9] In April 1994, Gaylord Entertainment and Nashville city made a bid for Minnesota Timberwolves to move to Nashville.[10]

Gaylord Broadcasting in 1994 had sued The WB to get some of its stations out their affiliation with the network to affiliated them with CBS. The WB counter sued for breach of contract and acting in bad faith. As a part of the settlement, Gaylord Broadcasting sold KHTV to WB partner Tribune Broadcasting.[11]

Gaylord Entertainment began moving into the niche of Christian businesses with May 1996 assumption of management of Z Music Television[12] along with an option to buy 95% of the cable channel.[13] Gaylord extended operations into the Christian-related businesses. Word Entertainment, a Christian music company, was purchased in January 1997 from Thomas Nelson Publishers.[14] Word and artist/producer Steve Taylor launched in September 1997 Squint Entertainment joint venture label.[15] In 1999, 51% of Christian music musicforce.com was acquired, while musicforce.com purchased all of Lightsource.com, a provider to broadcast.com of Christian-content. A new online division, GETdigitalmedia, soon followed.[2]

Gaylord Entertainment sold for stock its two cable channels sans CMT International and Z-Music management rights and stock options to CBS-Westinghouse in February 1997.[16] CMT International ceased CMT Europe channel due to high losses from distribution and satellite costs on March 31, 1998. In Europe, they shifted to providing CMT as block programming to other channels.[17]

Also in 1997, Opryland USA theme park was closed for redevelopment into a shopping and entertainment district called Opry Mills.[4] With its The Mills Corp. partner, building began in October 1998 on the complex which opened in May 2000.[2] Gaylord would own a third of the district while The Mills a majority 2/3 share. Terry E. London was appointed in 1997 as CEO and began a series of reinventions of the company.[18]

Gaylord Cable Networks purchased a 15% stake in TV Argentina and Solo Tango pay TV channels in the Fall of 1999 when it added a programming block to TV Argentina, a music and lifestyle channel. In May 2000, Gaylord upped its stakes in the two channels to 50%. The company expend to convert TV Argentina to MusicCountry and expand Solo Tango's, dance focus channel, reach beyond Argentina and its limited South American distribution.[19] Gaylord Cable Networks launched MusicCountry cable channel in Mexico and Argentina on July 1, 2000 and closed Z Music on June 30, 2000. In Mexico, MusicCountry was a two-hour programming block on Video Rola music channel. The block on TV Argentina started with nine hours with three in prime time with expectations to expand to 24 hours. MusicCountry would take a broader view of country to localization and adding in a mix of Americana, folk, rock, and roots music programming. On September 1, 2000, the MusicCountry brand would be available in Europe. In Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Asia-Pacific region's areas, CMT channels would rebrand to MusicCountry by year's end. A 24-hour schedule was slated for the Australia and Pacific Rim channels.[20] MusicCountry Latin America channel in Argentina launched with its Latin America partner, Ashmore, as a 24-hour channel in late November 2000 as a rebranding of TV Argentina.[19][21]

In 1997, in partnership with the newly-formed Nashville Predators (NHL) hockey team (which would begin play in 1998, and of which Gaylord Entertainment owned a 20% share), the company purchased the naming rights to Nashville's new downtown arena, which became known as the Gaylord Entertainment Center. The agreement − originally signed for 20 years at a cost of $2 million per year −[18] was canceled in 2005, but the name remained on the arena until 2007. Gaylord also divested its ownership share of the franchise.

Gaylord started its Family Value Entertainment division with the April 1997 purchase of Blanton Harrell Entertainment management firm. Z Music and Word Entertainment were transferred into the division. Division co-presidents appointed were Michael Blanton and Dan Harrell.[22]

In July 1998, Gaylord Entertainment purchased Pandora Investment, Luxembourg-based film acquisition and distribution company, and placed it in its Idea Entertainment division.[23] Gaylord funded in March 1999 Indigo Productions.[24]

Wildhorse Saloon, a country music dance club and restaurant, was opened in 1994 in downtown Nashville.[25] A second location was opened in Orlando in 1998 as a part of a plan turning the club into a country-wide chain. However, it was closed in November 1999 with a loss of $16 million. Its Dallas-Fort Worth station, KTVT, was sold to CBS in October 1999 for $485 million.[18]

Gaylord Films was started with the hiring of producer Hunt Lowry as president in May 2000 as he ended his first look deal at Walt Disney Studios. Gaylord Films would focus on mainstream films while mid-budget and specialty films would be Pandora's area.[26] The film unit signed in September 2000 a co-financing, distribution and production deal with Warner Bros. for four years and up to ten films.[27] In October 2000, Pandora Pictures was slated to move to Los Angeles with Lowry taking over as the company president and mostly new executive team.[28]

2000 also saw Gaylord invested in several websites, Edgate.com Inc. kid portal, CountryCool.com country music site and RockCity.com short film site. London left as CEO along with internet division head Brian Payne and creative content group president Tim DuBois. New management in the early 2000s believed that Gaylord Entertainment's future lie solely in the management of the hospitality arm of the company. With the exception of the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium, General Jackson Showboat, Wildhorse Saloon, and WSM radio in Nashville, all non-hotel businesses were abandoned or sold. By 2001, the company closed or sold its stakes in the above websites plus Lightsource.com and Musicforce.com and took a $59 million charge. Golf event entities were sold to Oklahoma Publishing Co.[18] Word Entertainment's UK operations were sold in Spring 2001 to STL, Ltd.[29] Squint was reduced to a label when its staff was let go in August 2001 with only Taylor remaining as president to handle artists and repertoire.[15] In December 2001, Gaylord agreed to sell Word Entertainment to Warner Music Group with the sale closing in December 2002.[29]

Gaylord Entertainment announced construction on two Opryland Hotel in late 1998 in Osceola County, Florida (near Orlando) and in Grapevine, Texas were slated to open in 2002 and 2003. Their hotel development plans were expanded by 2001 to a total of five to seven hotels with the Opryland Hotel Potomac, a 2,000-room hotel and convention center at National Harbor, Maryland to start building in 2002 to open in 2004.[2] Other location announced later were San Antonio, Texas, San Diego, Mesa, Arizona, and Denver, Colorado. Gaylord Hotels division opened Gaylord Palms Hotel & Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida in 2002.[30] The Gaylord Opryland Texas Resort & Convention Center opened in April 2004.[31][32] Opryland Hotel Potomac opened on April 1, 2008 as the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.[33]

Acuff-Rose Music was sold in August 2002 to Sony/ATV Music Publishing for over ten times over purchase price.[5][34] In March 2003, a sales agreement for WSM-FM (95.5) and WWTN-FM (99.7) radio stations plus WSM-AM sale management to Cumulus Media was agreed upon.[35] Gaylord Entertainment sold Gaylord Films and Pandora Films libraries and in development projects to Qualia Capital in March 2006.[36]

Gaylord Entertainment acquired ResortsQuest International in November 2003[37] via a stock swap.[38] Gaylord transferred their senior vice president of marketing Mark Fioravanti to be ResortQuest CEO.[37] In December 2004, ResortQuest sold its software arm's name, First Resort Software, and its property management software to Instant Software.[39] Gaylord purchase the Aston Waikiki Hotel on June 2, 2005[40] from Leucadia National[41] while selling 80.1% to a private real estate fund managed by DB Real Estate Opportunities Group.[42] In April 2007, Gaylord had its subsidiary sell it Hawaiian holdings, while retaining shares in two hotels, to Interval Acquisition Corp., a unit of IAC/InterActiveCorp.[43][44] This was followed by a June 2007 agreement to sell the rest of ResortQuest to a subsidiary of Leucadia National Corp.[45] One of the two Hawaiian hotels with an 18.1% share retained, ResortQuest Kauai Beach at Makaiwa,[43] continued to be managed by the renamed ResortQuest Hawaii, Aston Hotels & Resorts, until the hotel was placed in receivership and sold in August 2010 to a major Southern California real estate firm.[46] The Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel (19.9 percent ownership stake)[43] was sold in 2014 to Inland American Lodging Group.[47]

TRT Holdings, owned by the Texas billionaire Robert Rowling, bought 14 percent of Gaylord stock in early 2008.[48] Later that year, Gaylord rejected Rowling's bid to increase TRT's stake to 30 percent and getting 3 board director positions, saying there would be no benefit to the company and also noting TRT's potential conflict of interest, since TRT owns the Omni Hotel chain, which competes with Gaylord for conference and convention business.[49] The company adopted a shareholder rights plan as a poison pill in 2008. TRT got two seats on the board of director by August 2011, when TRT purchased additional shares of Gaylord bring its ownership share to 21%.[50] In management's effort to see the Marriott plan to succeed, the company paid $185 million on August 7, 2012 for almost half of the shares owned by billionaire Robert Rowling and launched an offering to help him dispose of his remaining 5.6 million shares.[51] Rowling had previously opposed the Marriott purchase saying, "The company can go on a diet without having surgery. We would rather see Gaylord maintain the status quo and implement the savings without permanently impairing the value of the Gaylord Properties by encumbering them with the onerous, long term Marriott Agreement."[52] Omni was revealed as the developer of the Fifth Avenue convention center hotel adjacent to the downtown Music City Center in August 2010 with plans to open in 2013.[53]

The company agreed to sell the Gaylord Hotels division including brand with a 35-year management contract, to Marriott International in May 2012, while retaining ownership of the hotels.[54] The company also announced that they would not continue with the Aurora, Colorado hotel-convention center.[55] The company's second largest shareholder, Mario Gabelli's GAMCO Investors, called for the company to spin off its Opry and Attractions division.[56] In September 2012, Gaylord also agreed that Marriott's Gaylord Hotels would also manage on the company's behalf Radisson Hotel Opryland, Gaylord Springs Golf Links, the General Jackson Showboat and the Wildhorse Saloon.[57] As a result of the sale, the company lost the rights to use the Gaylord name, resulting in the change to Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc., after initial choosing the name Granite Hotel Properties. According to Chairman and CEO Colin Reed, Ryman will continue to operate and manage the Grand Ole Opry, Ryman Auditorium and WSM radio for the time being, stating that they are "iconic" assets.[58] On September 25, 2012, shareholders voted for the reorganization as a REIT and sale of Gaylord Hotels to Marriott.[58] Ryman Hospitality Properties began operations on October 1 at which time management of the venues by Marriott begins. The Radisson Opryland on December 1 would move over on December 1st to Marriott management with the new name of the Inn at Opryland.[57]

Marriott opened in April 2015 the AC Hotel Washington, D.C., with ownership by Ryman Properties in National Harbor, Maryland.[59] In March 2016, Ryman revieved its Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center project in a joint venture with RIDA Development and Ares Management with a 35% stake with the complex to be manage via Marriott.[60]

Opry Entertainment opened on December 1, 2017 Opry City Stage as a joint venture in New York City.[61][62] The venue was planned to be turned into a chain.[62]

Ryman agreed to December 2019 to purchase Block 21 entertainment complex, which includes Austin City Limits venues, from Stratus Properties for $275 million including assumption of about $141 million mortgage. An offering of at least 3 million shares of Ryman would be made to fund the purchase in first quarter 2020.[63]