K-TWIN hires Brian "B.T." Turner and Rena Sarigianopoulos

Still working on branding its identity before it takes over as the new Twins broadcaster, Pohlad-owned radio station K-TWIN (96.3 FM) is lifting some well-known personalities from Cities 97 and KARE-11.

Former Cities morning show host Brian "B.T." Turner will become the new noontime jockey on K-TWIN starting Jan. 2, which is also the date Rena Sarigianopoulos will begin her new duties as co-host of K-TWIN's morning show alongside her longtime KARE-11 cohort Eric Perkins.

"Working for a locally owned company is a big part of what makes this appealing to me," said Turner, who worked for Cities 97 for 17 years, in which time the "adult" pop and rock outlet became a part of the Clear Channel chain. Also a former REV-105 staffer, Turner was let go from his Cities morning-show duties in March and given a sales job in the company, which he said he was very open to at first, but … well, you know. He said he resigned from Cities before he started talking to Northern Lights Broadcasting, the Pohlad company that owns K-TWIN.

"Doing sales in a corporate environment was a pretty joyless experience," he said, "but I was surrounded by some really good people who I enjoyed working with. Those are still my people over there." For his new air shift -- weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. -- Turner hopes to host on-air chats with some of his other people, including local figures from the food, theater and music worlds who often joined him at Cities. K-TWIN's mix of '80s-'90s rock and current hitmakers like Adele and Maroon 5 is not that far off from the Cities 97 format.

Like Perkins, Sarigianopoulos will continue her reporting and sometimes anchoring duties at KARE-11 and only cut down on her sleep to join the K-TWIN morning shift (weekdays 5:30-10 a.m.). She and Perkins will also be joined in the mornings by a third co-host with more radio experience, Cane Peterson, a local native who has been working with Sirius XM and K-ROCK in New York.

K-TWIN let go of previous morning show co-host Tony Fly (or Tone E. Fly) in July, leaving no trace of the hip-hop format that previously occupied the 96.3 FM frequency. It takes over as the official Twins broadcaster starting with the 2013 season.