Profile

Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. is a hotel, resort, entertainment, and media company named after National Historic Landmark the Ryman Auditorium, built as a tabernacle by Captain Thomas G. Ryman in 1892 and later the home of the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974. The hospitality group was founded by Edward Gaylord. Prior to its public ownership, it was previously a subsidiary of the Oklahoma City-based Oklahoma Publishing Company, which was formerly owned by the Gaylord family for 71 years until 2011. The OPUBCO company was once the longtime publisher of the Daily Oklahoman newspaper. Until 2012, the company was known as Gaylord Entertainment Company, and earlier as Gaylord Broadcasting Company. The company has operated as a real estate investment trust since October 1, 2012. 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.