For Connoisseur Media, and any other broadcast licensee currently navigating a foreign ownership remediation at the FCC, a Tuesday filing brought some much-needed clarity, but also a few speed bumps — especially as the Jeff Warshaw-led radio group goes full steam ahead on its aggressive M&A plan.
The Media Bureau issued processing guidelines under GN Docket No. 25-149, implementing a directive from the January 2026 Foreign Ownership Report and Order. The order was itself an important development, as it expanded the remedial petition process to privately held companies for the first time. Previously, the safe harbor mechanism, which shields licensees from enforcement action while they work to come into compliance, had been available only to publicly traded broadcast entities.
The January order is what opened the door for Connoisseur to file a remedial foreign ownership petition.
Yet, the new guidance now establishes the operational terrain while that petition remains pending, and for Connoisseur, that terrain is anything but simple, as the Westport, Conn.-based company has two transactions currently awaiting FCC sign-off.
On the acquisition side, Connoisseur has a deal pending for NRG Media’s six Lincoln, Nebraska stations — a purchase that itself requires a landmark ownership waiver, as approval would hand Warshaw all 11 commercially licensed radio brands appearing in the market’s Nielsen Audio results. On the divestiture side, the sale of six Watertown, South Dakota stations to Yankton-based Riverfront Broadcasting is expected to close in late summer, also pending FCC approval.
Under the bureau’s three-tier framework, neither of those moves is jeopardized outright, but both now carry an asterisk.
Routine operational filings, ie, requests for special temporary authority and minor technical modifications, will proceed normally, provided the remedial petition is complete, and no additional compliance questions are outstanding.
Transfer of control and assignment applications, including pro forma ownership changes, will also move forward, but with conditions limiting the involvement of unapproved foreign interest holders. Those grants remain contingent on the remedial petition’s ultimate resolution. License renewals, new construction permits, major facility modifications, and licenses to cover new construction will be held entirely until the foreign ownership matter is resolved.
For Connoisseur, that means the Lincoln and Watertown transactions fall into the conditioned middle tier: they can advance, but they don’t fully close the book until its ownership stake approval does.
The bureau preserved case-by-case discretion throughout, noting it may defer any application regardless of tier if circumstances warrant, and may revise the framework through a subsequent public notice.
