2-12-2013
Connoisseur CEO Jeffrey Warshaw says he got some fabulous radio stations when he signed to purchase the Cox cluster in Connecticut. "They are the best people, great positions, tremendous facilities, and amazing community involvement, which is the business that we are in." Warshaw says nothing will change in terms of the people employed at the Connecticut cluster which is run by market manager Kristin Okesson.
In the deal, Connoisseur will get WPLR FM, WEZN FM, and WFOX FM. Connoisseur is also purchasing CMG?s services arrangement with Yale Broadcasting under which CMG provides sales and other services to Urban Adult Contemporary WYBC-FM.
While Warshaw would not give away the multiple he paid for the stations, he says clearly Connoisseur was the company willing to pay more than anybody else. And from all the stations Cox was shopping, this market was the one that piqued his interest. "These are very special stations in an amazing market. It's a real benefit being in our backyard, with the Long Island stations that we're having tremendous success with, the stations in Pennsylvania, the New Jersey stations that we are buying from Nassau, we could see that they all fit together. Within a couple of hours' drive from our office, we are within a very meaningful amount of cash flow."
On whether he wants to grow even more, Warshaw says, "We are interested in being the best, not the biggest. We are connoisseurs, we are not gluttons." Connoisseur has been in a rapid-growth mode, recently expanding into several markets including Long Island, Trenton, N.J., and Allentown, PA. The company has closed on or announced over $100,000,000 of radio station acquisitions in the past nine months.
Connoisseur is headquartered in Westport, CT. The company owns and/or operates radio stations in Allentown, PA, Billings, MT, Bloomington, IL, Erie, PA, Nassau-Suffolk, N.Y., Omaha, NE, Rapid City, S.D., Stroudsburg, PA, Trenton, N.J., and Wichita, KS.
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