Longtime Twin Cities radio personality Brian Oake was let go Wednesday by Cities 97.1. iHeart Media, which runs the station and several others in the Twin Cities, announced a few personnel changes including Zach Dillon moving from KDWB to Oake's afternoon drive slot on Cities 97.1.
Oake could not be reached for comment but confirmed his departure to Bring Me the News. His Wednesday show was filled with music and no announcer.
In November, Oake was quietly shifted from Cities 97 morning show to the afternoon program, and Paul Fletcher moved to mornings. Oake rejoined Cities 97 in 2021 where he had been a franchise personality for 15 years, doing afternoons starting in 2001 before moving to mornings in 2012. In 2016, he joined Minnesota Public Radio's 89.3 the Current for its morning show.
In 2019, Oake left the Current after he was suspended over social-media posts. The last ones involved him complaining about Palace Theatre staff for kicking him out of a concert there after his daughter, then 20, was seen drinking from his cocktail glass. (Oake claimed it was empty except for ice.)
Between radio gigs, Oake, who has a distinctively sonorous voice, did a podcast and clerked at Mill City Sound record store in Hopkins.
Oake stopped by Mill City Sound on Wednesday, the store's owner Rob Sheeley reports, and will be "working more at the store and expanding his podcast."
Other broadcasters weighed in. "Brian Oake is brilliant at his job, he will be heard again, if program directors are smart, he will have multiple offers soon," WCCO Radio personality Chad Hartman tweeted on Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile, at KDWB, Colt Parkey will take over Dillon's slot on the afternoon show, pairing with Falen Bonsett. Dillon will continue to serve as assistant program director at KDWB as well as adding the similar position at Cities 97.1.
