Brookings got a new locally owned newspaper, the Brookings Beacon, out of the out-of-state corporate divestment and reacquisition of the Brookings Register last summer. Now Connecticut-base Connoisseur Media is declaring the Brookings radio market not worth its time… but it’s selling its stations directly to local operators.
Hooray for local programming! But boo for corporate Newspeak:
Connoisseur Media announced today that it has entered into an agreement to sell its Brookings, SD radio stations to Brookings Radio, LLC, locally owned and operated by Cami Powers, her husband Derrick Powers, and Chad Hogie. Brookings Radio, LLC will acquire KBRK-AM and KBRK-FM licensed to Brookings, SD, KDBX-FM licensed to Clear Lake, SD and KJJQ-AM and KKQQ-FM, licensed to Volga, SD. The transaction is pending regulatory approval by the FCC and is expected to close in early summer of this year.
This sale represents Connoisseur Media’s ongoing commitment to refining its portfolio and strengthening its presence in priority markets. It aligns with the company’s strategic roadmap established after the September acquisition of Alpha Media.
“The Brookings market did not fit into the long-term vision we set out for Connoisseur. As we pursued a potential sale, we looked for local quality operators to purchase these stations and found that the best operators in the market already worked for us! This is not the first time we have encouraged some of our local management to break into ownership so that they could continue to serve the communities we are so committed to. We are incredibly happy that Cami and her group stepped up to the challenge” said Jeff Warshaw, Founder and CEO of Connoisseur Media [Brookings Radio, press release, 2026.03.25].
Hey, darling, I’m so committed to you that I’m going to strengthen my presence with other priority girlfriends, because you don’t fit into my long-term vision. If people talked like corporations and their marketing divisions, they’d get slapped for their insulting self-contradiction.
Evidently still a priority for Connoisseur is Watertown, where Connoisseur’s acquisition of nationwide Alpha Media last September bought it six radio stations.
After growing up with KBRK this interested party studied The Lantern, Jim’s Tap, The Last Step and Horatio’s at South Dakota State University in the 70s post-Kent State and Vietnam public radio became a loyal traveling companion and powerful vehicle for lifelong learning. But these days Brookings is simply a place where intellect goes to die because it’s infested with Earth haters gutting public media in a rural red state that’s depriving people living on reservations of vital links in news deserts.
Public television and radio were created in part to be government watchdogs so a cynical observer might suspect politicians like South Dakota’s junior US Senator desperately want to hide NPR’s coverage of the tumult and turmoil in the Trump White House.
Since smash burgers are now everywhere, they didn’t need Nicks anymore. They can now order their hamburgers everywhere with out having to decide rare, medium rare, medium, medium well, or well done. Then having to conclude if the chef is ok with the categories. Its hard enough being a connoisseur of media let alone burgers.
Throw Bison burgers into the mix and categories are really screwed. Those Hamburgians caused the problem in the first place.
It’s been a while since I’ve been here, but after reading through this, it seems you didn’t notice that Connoisseur Media also sold of KJAM in Madison to new owners as well. In their case, they got sold off to the Christensen family out of SW Minnesota. They are more known for operating KISD 98.7 out of Pipestone, the long time oldies/classic hits station. Christensen official took over at the end of February, and overhauled the stations on March 1st. The FM is now KMZM, branded as “Amazing Country”. KJAM 1390 is still classic hits, but oh boy, they really expanded the playlist to include songs I’ve haven’t heard on the radio in ages. Sound quality has improved as well. Oh, and there are local DJs again. No more canned satellite crap. On the other hand, 1390 no longer plays “Calling All Sports”, which a former Daily Leader sports reporter liked to listen to.
Christensen also got Connoisseur’s Luverne stations, and also reformatted those. K101 transformed into “KCLP The Rock Farm”, attempting to break into the Sioux Falls rock radio market (I mean, they hired Crash as a DJ), while KQAD AM800 switched to a Life 96.5 clone called KDWC.
As for Watertown, I believe there is a chance that they will end up getting sold too. The Madison cluster sold off first, before the Brookings sale was announced. I do hope like the other two clusters, the Watertown stations also go to a local (or at least, regional) ownership group.