CEO Jeff Warshaw isn’t done tinkering with Connoisseur Media’s portfolio, and he expects he never will be. Two months after closing the year’s biggest deal — the acquisition of Alpha Media — 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.

“As soon as we close one deal, then I’m looking to see what’s the next one so that I can create value,” he said. “There is no finish line.”

Warshaw explained in a wide-ranging conversation about strategy and timing that Connoisseur’s trimming of small markets is intentional — 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.

“In Moberly, MO what is best for listeners, clients and employees is to have somebody that is a better owner than me for those markets,” he said.

Warshaw contrasted that with Connoisseur’s 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.

In the two months since the Alpha deal closed, Warshaw has also shown a willingness to buy. That includes the $10 million acquisition of Bonneville’s Bay Area cluster, which he says fits squarely into Connoisseur’s long-term strategy. Warshaw already owned stations in San Jose and the East Bay — and he says Connoisseur is the kind of owner capable of competing with established players in the sixth-largest market.

“I’m the right buyer,” Warshaw said. “We have great assets in the East Bay and South Bay, and the opportunity to buy stations in San Francisco was a natural for us.”

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.

“There’s going to be spin-offs, swaps, and acquisitions as we put together a group of assets that we think is in our best interest,” Warshaw said. “It’s 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.”

He said Connoisseur is positioned to expand due to its disciplined balance-sheet management before and throughout COVID-19. “We paid our debt down, and we earned the right to buy these stations,” he said.

Alpha Integration Underway

The Alpha Media integration continues in the meantime, with what Warshaw describes as “a lot of change.” That includes cultural resets, digital upgrades, and management restructuring — some already completed, more still coming. In a year with an uneven revenue picture, Warshaw says the legacy Connoisseur markets have “substantially” outperformed industry trends, helped by strong digital and local sales. Alpha’s performance has been more in line with industry peers.

“We’re happy with most of the people and markets,” he said. “Our goal now is to collaborate to make sure that we’re combining the best of what we do with some of the legacy things that Alpha had.”

Warshaw isn’t setting a timeline for how long that may take, suggesting instead that reshaping Connoisseur is an ongoing process without a finish line.

“We’ll be changing formats, improving digital, and upgrading people and sales. This is not a business that you can sit back and say, okay, we’re done,” he said. “This is a business that is challenging and evolving. And that’s one of the things that I love.”

Originally published at Inside Radio