CEO Jeff Warshaw isn\u2019t done tinkering with Connoisseur Media\u2019s portfolio, and he expects he never will be. Two months after closing the year\u2019s biggest deal \u2014 the acquisition of Alpha Media \u2014 Connoisseur has added a Bay Area cluster, spun-off stations in Bakersfield, CA and Missouri, and reshaped management inside several local markets. And Warshaw says more moves are already in the pipeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as we close one deal, then I\u2019m looking to see what\u2019s the next one so that I can create value,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no finish line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Warshaw explained in a wide-ranging conversation about strategy and timing that Connoisseur\u2019s trimming of small markets is intentional \u2014 and far from over. The Alpha acquisition left the company with stations in towns as small as 7,000 people, but Warshaw believes those communities deserve a different kind of operator.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Moberly, MO what is best for listeners, clients and employees is to have somebody that is a better owner than me for those markets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Warshaw contrasted that with Connoisseur\u2019s performance in regions like Connecticut and Long Island, where the company commands dominant shares, has big sales forces, high-profile talent, and more advanced digital operations. Those strengths, he argues, simply don’t translate to very small markets.<\/p>\n
In the two months since the Alpha deal closed<\/a>, Warshaw has also shown a willingness to buy. That includes the $10 million acquisition<\/a> of Bonneville\u2019s Bay Area cluster, which he says fits squarely into Connoisseur\u2019s long-term strategy. Warshaw already owned stations in San Jose and the East Bay \u2014 and he says Connoisseur is the kind of owner capable of competing with established players in the sixth-largest market.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m the right buyer,\u201d Warshaw said. \u201cWe have great assets in the East Bay and South Bay, and the opportunity to buy stations in San Francisco was a natural for us.\u201d<\/p>\n He expects more opportunities over the next 12 to 18 months as financially stressed operators look for partners or exits. And that will offer Connoisseur plenty of choice.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s going to be spin-offs, swaps, and acquisitions as we put together a group of assets that we think is in our best interest,\u201d Warshaw said. \u201cIt\u2019s a challenging environment. But we plan to be opportunistic driven by the fact that there are a lot of companies that have upside down balance sheets.\u201d<\/p>\n He said Connoisseur is positioned to expand due to its disciplined balance-sheet management before and throughout COVID-19. \u201cWe paid our debt down, and we earned the right to buy these stations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Alpha Integration Underway<\/p>\n The Alpha Media integration continues in the meantime, with what Warshaw describes as \u201ca lot of change.\u201d That includes cultural resets, digital upgrades, and management restructuring \u2014 some already completed, more still coming. In a year with an uneven revenue picture, Warshaw says the legacy Connoisseur markets have \u201csubstantially\u201d outperformed industry trends, helped by strong digital and local sales. Alpha\u2019s performance has been more in line with industry peers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re happy with most of the people and markets,\u201d he said. \u201cOur goal now is to collaborate to make sure that we\u2019re combining the best of what we do with some of the legacy things that Alpha had.\u201d<\/p>\n Warshaw isn\u2019t setting a timeline for how long that may take, suggesting instead that reshaping Connoisseur is an ongoing process without a finish line.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll be changing formats, improving digital, and upgrading people and sales. This is not a business that you can sit back and say, okay, we\u2019re done,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a business that is challenging and evolving. And that\u2019s one of the things that I love.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CEO Jeff Warshaw isn\u2019t done tinkering with Connoisseur Media\u2019s portfolio, and he expects he never will be. Two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":150418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,3411,85,46,409,43],"class_list":["post-150417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-free","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/150418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}