Twin Cities radio listeners may have wondered if they’d just awoken from a long sleep when they turned on the radio Monday morning.
Brian Oake, who had left “Cities 97.1” (KTCZ) in 2015 for a job at “The Current” (KCMP), is back on “Cities.” Station owner iHeartMedia issued a news release Tuesday saying that Brianne Burdette will co-host the 6 to 10 a.m. shift with Oake.
“Brian Oake is a part of the history and fabric of the station,” Program Director Rich Davis said in the news release.
“From his afternoon show back in 2001 when he started with us, to his time as my morning man, he personifies this radio station. He is uniquely Twin Cities and I’m so excited to have him back anchoring weekday mornings,” Davis said.
The secret is out!!! This is awesome! @OakeShow @Tarth_Brooks #cities971 pic.twitter.com/A6auUcHLg0
— Rich Davis (@richdradio) May 17, 2021
Oake is a Twin Cities native. The Star Tribune reports that after parting ways with “The Current,” he launched a podcast and worked in a record store.
“Cities 97.1 has been so much a part of my career and such a major part of Twin Cities radio history,” Oake said in the news release. “I am honored to be a part of its continued story.”
The “Cities” brand first launched in 1984 and has had an Adult Alternative base for most of its history except for a foray into Hot Adult Contemporary in the mid-2010s.