ABOUT RTC COMMUNICATIONS
Daviess-Martin County Rural Telephone Corporation was incorporated as a non-profit corporation on October 27, 1949 by a group of 45 farmers who purchased the Montgomery, Epsom and Glendale telephone exchanges, known as the MEG Telephone System, for $4,500 from Louis Roundtree, who had acquired them from Midwest Telephone Co. in the early 1940's. These exchanges were started in the early part of the century and later acquired by Charles Head, who integrated them into the Pike County Telephone Co., predecessor of Midwest Telephone Co.
The original directors were Bernard Gillooly, Taylor Frye, Robert Chapman, Ottis O'Brian, William Oberst, Chris Doyle, Charles Cunningham, J. Austin McCall, and Robert H. Myers.
In December 1950, the corporation purchased the Williams exchange for $150 from Max Hosea and in June 1951, also purchased the Plainville Telephone Company for $8,000.
After obtaining a Rural Electrification Administration loan in April 1952, several miles of cable were placed into service in the next few years, and the first Stromberg-Carlson automatic dial office was put into service in 1954. That year, the corporation moved into a new headquarters building in Montgomery making it unnecessary to continue holding business and board meetings in the county REMC building.
Service improvements continued through the 1960s and '70s. In 1983, the company's first digital central office was put into service--the start of a project to convert all exchanges to single party service. Also in 1983, Daviess-Martin County RTC moved into a newly built 5,300 square foot headquarters building located on Main Street in Montgomery.
Daviess-Martin County RTC continued to expand throughout the rest of the '80s and '90s, improving not only the quality of its existing telephone services, but also expanded services to the surrounding communities.
Today, Daviess-Martin County RTC/dba RTC Communications brings a multitude of services, which range from traditional dial tone with advanced calling features, to long distance, Internet services, DSL, data networking, as well as computer sales and repair. RTC Communications has over 4,080 local access lines; 4,324 Internet customers; 2,091 long distance customers, and is currently deploying high-speed wireless Internet services.
Steve Bartlett is the Executive V.P./General Manager. The current officers and directors of the corporation are: John H. Steiner, president; Martel Williams, vice-president; Bennie Lawyer, secretary-treasurer; David Redman; Curtis Hornaday and Jim Williams.
