Connoisseur Media

Connoisseur Media is an American media company based in Westport, Connecticut and led by Jeff Warshaw. Connoisseur operates 39 radio stations and digital assets in 11 markets across the U.S. with a focus on the New York City media market, including Long Island, Connecticut and New Jersey.

History

Connoisseur Media Founder and CEO, Jeff Warshaw built his first station while still a student at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1993, Jeff founded Connoisseur Communications Partners LP, a 39 station group which he later sold to Cumulus Broadcasting in 2000 for $258 million. In 2004, Jeff and CFO Mike Driscoll formed Connoisseur Media which now operates 42 radio station brands and digital assets in 12 markets. The first acquisition of the company involved several stations in Bloomington, IL with capital from hedge fund Farallon Capital, along with its founders. Through a combination of start-ups, move-ins, and acquisitions, Connoisseur Media expanded rapidly over the last several years and maintains a significant presence in the New York City media market.

It was announced in July 2015 that Petrus Holding Company LP invested in Connoisseur Media. [1]

On March 27, 2019, Connoisseur Media announced that it would acquire WFRE and sister station WFMD from the Aloha Station Trust in exchange for transferring its Erie, Pennsylvania cluster to iHeartMedia.[2][3] The sale closed on May 21, 2019.[4]

Company Portfolio

Radio

Bay Shore, NY

Bridgeport, CT

Frederick, MD

  • WFRE (Free Country 99.9 WFRE)
  • WFMD (Free Talk 930 WFMD)

Hempstead, NY

Lehighton, PA

  • WBYN (ESPN Radio of the Lehigh Valley)

New Haven, CT

Patchogue, NY

Smithtown, NY

  • WWSK (The Shark 94.3)

Southport, CT

Stroudsburg, PA

Westport, CT

gollark: Probably baidicoot.
gollark: Anyone who disagrees is to be declared a bipolar junction transistor.
gollark: Obviously.
gollark: Anyway, everyone's subjective music taste except mine is entirely wrong, obviously.
gollark: Room temperature superconductors were tried but required the server to be in a diamond anvil constantly.

References
  1. Perot Companies Go for Connoisseur Media Archived 2015-07-16 at the Wayback Machine Paul McLane, Radio World, July 15, 2015
  2. "iHeartMedia & Connoisseur Media Swap Frederick & Erie". RadioInsight. 27 March 2019.
  3. cjfairfield@newspost.com, CJ Fairfield. "Two Frederick radio stations acquired by Connoisseur Media". The Frederick News-Post.
  4. "No New Station Sales In FCC Database Tuesday Morning". All Access.
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