Gothe was born in Berlin, Germany, where he was a child actor for Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor[2] before his family moved to Canada in 1954.[3] They settled in Medicine Hat, Alberta,[3] where his father was a baker.[4] He dropped out of high school after Grade 10, and joined local radio station CHAT at age 15 as an advertising copywriter,[5] later moving to an on-air role as host of a jazz show[3] and writing for sister CBC television affiliate station CHAT-TV.[3]
Moving to Vancouver, British Columbia in the mid-1960s,[6] he worked for an advertising agency and for CHQM-FM[6] before rejoining the CBC, this time in radio. He briefly hosted a weekend classical music program in 1984[7] before becoming host of DiscDrive in 1985.[8]
After DiscDrive was cancelled in 2008 as part of a format shift at Radio 2, Gothe continued with the CBC for one more year as host of the weekend classical music program Farrago[9] until leaving the CBC in 2009.[10]
Throughout his radio career, Gothe was also a contributor of wine and food writing to various publications,[5] a judge at wine and culinary competitions both in Canada and internationally,[3] and ran his own corporate public relations company, Quincy Gothe.[5] Quincy, his nominal partner in the firm, was his pet cat.[5] He wrote the "Uncorked" wine column for The Georgia Straight from 1997 to 2014.[11] He announced his retirement as a columnist for The Georgia Straight in August 2014.
