Connoisseur Media continues to grow, announcing late Tuesday that it is acquiring Bonneville International’s San Francisco Bay Area cluster of stations, which includes several heritage FMs.
The stations in the pending acquisition are San Francisco’s adult contemporary 96.5 KOIT(FM) and top 40 99.7 KMVQ(FM), along with the R&B-formatted 102.9 KBLX(FM), which is licensed to Berkeley.
The deal also includes San Jose’s classic rock 98.5 KUFX(FM).
Financial terms were not disclosed.
The pending purchase follows five months after Connoisseur announced it planned to acquire Alpha Media’s 207 stations, which was finalized in August. At a time of widely reported revenue challenges for commercial broadcast radio, the company’s acquisition activity is being closely watched.
The company, led by CEO Jeff Warshaw, is positioning itself as “a powerful nationwide local media platform reaching 20% of the U.S. radio audience.”
The transaction is pending approval by the FCC and is expected to close later this year, according to a Connoisseur release.
Upon completion, the deal will bring the total number of stations Connoisseur owns to 220 across 48 U.S. markets.
Connoisseur already had a Bay Area footprint, as it owns 94.5 KBAY(FM) and 106.5 KEZR(FM), which target San Jose, and 95.3 KUIC(FM) and 101.7 KKIQ(FM), which serve the East Bay region.
Bonneville’s exit from San Francisco ends a long history for the company there. In 1976, the Chronicle Publishing Company sold the then 96.5 KRON(FM) to Bonneville, which changed the call letters to KOIT. It then acquired classical 102.1 KDFC(FM) and 95.7 KPIX(FM) in 1997.
KOIT and Bonneville’s two other San Francisco stations were swapped with Entercom stations in other markets in 2007. However, in 2017, to comply with ownership limits, KOIT, KMVQ, KBLX and KUFX were divested, and Bonneville completed a sale for $141 million in 2018.
It still operates stations in Phoenix, Sacramento, Denver, Seattle-Tacoma and its home market of Salt Lake City. The company said the deal reflects its strategy to invest in “high-growth areas” across radio, television, streaming, digital and apps.
[Related: “Connoisseur Completes Acquisition of Alpha Media”]
