Rural Media Group, owner of The Cowboy Channel, is adding The Cowgirl Channel to its stable.

Programmed with Western sports content aimed at women, The Cowgirl Channel will launch on Dish Network's America's Top 120 package and on Sling TV on February 5. 

The Cowgirl Channel will also be available by subscribing to the Cowboy Channel Plus streaming channel, which costs $9.99 monthly.

“Women of all ages participating in Western sports and embracing the Western lifestyle is experiencing explosive growth,” Patrick Gottsch, founder and president of Rural Media Group, said in a release. 

The initial television lineup has series including Women’s Western Sports Roundup, Rodeo Queens, RanchHer, FarmHer and Grit & Grace. 

In addition to programming designed around the interests of cowgirls, The Cowgirl Channel will also provide Rural Media Group the opportunity to program more professional rodeo and sporting events like barrel racing, breakaway roping, and women’s ranch rodeo.

“The popularity of this content on The Cowboy Channel is undeniable, and with so much original content and women’s events now being produced not only in the United States but all over the world, the launch of The Cowgirl Channel to go with The Cowboy Channel just makes sense,” Gottsch said. “I am so excited about the initial feedback we are receiving from individuals and organizations who have worked so hard to develop opportunities for women and their love of horses over the years.”

Headquarters for The Cowgirl Channel will be in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards. Rural Media Group is building a devoted television studio for The Cowgirl Channel in the front entrance of the parent company’s office. 

When visitors and viewers are in the Fort Worth Stockyards, they will have the opportunity to watch a live recording of a show for The Cowgirl Channel in one building and then see another show being recorded for The Cowboy Channel just down the street, the company said. ■

RFD-TV said it has acquired the Imus Ranch near Ribera, N.M., with plans to use it as a location to produce original programs and host company events, later expanding facilities to create a western resort.

The ranch -- built to accommodate Kids With Cancer, the Imus family (Don, Deirdre and Fred Imus) charity -- includes a western town where RFD-TV will put on display Trigger and Bullet, Roy Rogers's famous horse and dog, the programmer said. RFD-TV bought Trigger and Bullet at auction in 2010.

“The Imus family built this ranch from scratch that is so well designed that the complex can now be adapted immediately for a wide variety of uses,” Patrick Gottsch, founder and president of RFD-TV parent Rural Media Group Inc., said in a release. “RFD-TV The Ranch fits perfectly into our desire to produce more original television programming that embraces western sports and the western lifestyle for both RFD-TV and The Cowboy Channel.”

Don Imus, the famed radio and TV host, built the ranch in 1998 and announced plans to close it in late 2014, citing his age (74), health issues and upkeep costs among the factors, according to the Albuquerque Journal. 

Debbe Dunning's Dude Ranch Roundup, a dude-ranch travel show on the network, will move production to the ranch next year, the network said. The ranch includes Imus's former TV and radio studio. 

The ranch has a 14,000-square-foot hacienda and has 35 beds now to accommodate guests. Gottsch said the network plans to expand to include a health spa, shooting range, dance hall, ATV experience, conference center, bass fishing and other amenities. 

Veteran cable executive Alexander “Sandy” Brown has been named chief operating officer for Rural Media Group.

Brown had been president and CEO of One World Sports (now Eleven Sports). Before that he was president of sports for Univision and managing director for ESPN Asia.

AS COO and group president of RMG, Brown will lead the company's operating businesses, focusing on RFD-TV, The Cowboy Channel and Rural Radio on Sirius XM.

"Sandy Brown is a tremendous addition to our senior management team," said Patrick Gottsch, founder and president of Rural Media Group. "His vast experience in national advertising sales and existing relationships with key distributors will certainly add value to both RFD-TV and our new venture, The Cowboy Channel.

"RMG's operations in Nashville will also benefit daily with Sandy's leadership, as will our efforts to now expand all our interests digitally on an international basis,” Gottsch added. "I see Sandy as contributing heavily to helping our networks finally reach their full potential."

Brown will report to Gottsch.

"Rural Media Group is the unequivocal leader in covering the issues that affect our farming and ranching community, for no other network connects with this critical segment of our country in the manner that RMG does," Brown said. “I am thrilled to be joining the group at a time when rural America’s interests have never been more important.”

RFD-TV parent Rural Media Group is consolidating operations, now divided between Omaha, Neb., and Nashville, Tenn., in a Music Row address in Nashville formerly occupied by Great American Country. RMG also owns FamilyNet, Rural TV and Rural Radio. Scripps-owned country lifestyles network GAC moved out of 49 Music Square West (pictured) more than a year ago, and is now based in Knoxville.

Patrick Gottsch, founder of rural-focused RFD-TV, said RMG signed an agreement with Scripps Networks to sub-lease space at the 49 Music Square West. Operations now at Northstar Studios in Nashville will relocate over the next several months and at least some employees now in Omaha also will move to Nashville.

"By the end of the year we plan to move everything that’s in Omaha right now to Nashville, except for myself," Gottsch, who lives in Nebraska, told Multichannel News Wednesday. He said about 40 staffers are in Omaha, in such functions as accounting, marketing, sales and events. He said relocation packages were offered "for those who want to move. Some don't want to leave Omaha and want to stay there, so those folks will be replaced in Nashville. We gave everybody the opportunity to move to Nashville. It looks like about half of them are going to move and about half are going to find other employment."

The company said in a statement that the majority of the key people from RMG corporate operations in Omaha will be transferred to Nashville in the coming months. They include a new RMG Events LLC unit headed by RMG CEO Randy Bernard. The events include RFD-TV's The American, a rodeo to be held at the Dallas Cowboys-owned AT&T Stadium on March 1, 2015.

RMG said it would be creating jobs in 64 different categories in all aspects of television and radio operations, digital production and marketing with the move. Openings will be posted on rfdtv.com or resumes emailed to Jobs@rfdtv.com. Gottsch said in an interview he expects the company to have 150 on staff by the end of the year, rising to about 200 by the middle of next year. RMG plans to start renovations at the former GAC building soon and afterward will hold an open house for potential job applicants.

“The new headquarters will allow for RMG to add to its existing, talented workforce while filling the many holes necessary for this company to reach its full potential,” the RMG-released statement quoted Jon Finnegan, HR director, as saying. “Rural Media Group is a company experiencing explosive growth and the excitement for the move is already evident with our current employees and can only add to the positive and professional atmosphere that we will take to 49 Music Square West. We are looking forward to attracting the very best from the experienced media professionals not only in Tennessee, but from around the country.”

The agreement includes purchasing former GAC production space on the first and second floors, where news operations for RFD-TV and Rural Radio (on SiriusXM) will operate. Gottsch said the facilities there will "really allow us to upgrade our programming, especially our news programming." RMG said in a statement that full-time production for television and radio networks will originate from the new location no later than the first quarter of 2015.

RFD-TV produces music programs including The Marty Stuart Show and Larry's Country Diner at Northstar Studios. Gottsch said RFD-TV will seek to move those shows to GAC. "The studios are smaller at GAC than the big studios at Northstar, but we're going to find a way to make it work."