Son of Mineola Radio Station Owners Acquires Farmingdale-based Group

In an age increasingly dominated by cutting-edge smartphones, there’s something to be said about the simplicity, versatility, and personal touch afforded by one of the oldest mediums around- radio.

Jeff Warshaw, CEO of Connoisseur Media and Long Island native, owns radio stations in diverse areas, including Nebraska, Montana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota.

But recently, when Barnstable Broadcasting was selling a group of their well-known Long Island radio stations, Warshaw leapt at the chance to acquire stations situated in the land of his youth.

“I thought it was a very attractive deal,” he said. “I knew the communities; I knew the stations – I used to drive by KJOY’s towers all the time. The owner really expressed a desire to sell to a quality broadcaster who believed in local service and involvement in the community, and that’s what our reputation is.”

The stations purchased as a part of the deal include popular Long Island standards such as KJOY, B-103, WHLI, and 94X.

While he lives  in Connecticut, the roots of his youth are firmly planted on Long Island, having grown up and attended high school in Roslyn.

“My family owns many different kinds of radio stations, mostly foreign language and religious stations, so I kind of grew up in the business,” he said. “I was always intrigued by the radio business, reading trade magazines and tagging along with my father to conventions when I was a kid.”

One of those stations includes in Mineola, which is still owned by Warshaw’s parents and sells airtime to both local and national religious groups.

While only in his sophomore year of college, Warshaw decided to get his feet wet in the family business.

“When I was still in school, I had the opportunity to buy a construction permit and build a radio station. I put in money with my brothers and uncle, built it, put it on the air, and ultimately sold it.”

Warshaw took his share of the sales proceeds and started his own company, Connoisseur Communications, which he later sold in 2000; he then started a new company called Connoisseur Media in 2004.

“I liked the ‘Connoisseur’ name,” he said. “It was pretty good luck the first time around, so I just used it again.”

Connoisseur Media closed the deal on the acquisition of Barnstable Broadcasting’s four radio stations as of July 3, a deal that Warshaw clearly has a great deal of enthusiasm in.

“These are great stations, a great market, and great people,” he said. “We’re really excited. By and large, the stations are very successful, but as we get more comfortable with the operation there might be improvements, but our commitment to the community and to quality broadcasting will not change.”

He said that there would be no changes either to radio format or personnel and plans to things status quo for the time being as he feels the stations are quite successful as is.

Despite broadcast radio stations facing ever-increasing competition from the likes of satellite radio, MP3 players, and instantly-downloadable digital music, Warshaw is confident that good old radio will always be here to stay.

“First radio was going to be put out of business by television,” he said. “Then it was the eight-track tape, cassettes, compact discs, satellite radio, internet radio...if you want local programming that caters to your community, that’s involved in the community, with local advertising and marketing...there’s no competition for that.”