Chicago radio’s Lin Brehmer, a longtime WXRT DJ, has died at 68

Sunday morning came with snow, and with sorrow, in the form of the news of the death of Lin Brehmer, the hugely popular, buoyant and beloved host on Chicago radio’s WXRT-FM 93.1.

The 68-year-old had previously spoken publicly about his treatment for prostate cancer. Sunday morning, fellow WXRT host and friend Terri Hemmert informed listeners of his death and said in part in a statement, “We must inform you that we all lost our best friend. Lin Brehmer fought cancer as long as he could. He passed early this morning, peacefully, with his wife (Sara) and son (Wilson) by his side.”

Brehmer had been on the air here since 1991, as morning drive host until 2020, when he became a midday host.

He was born in August 1954 in New York and grew up in Queens. A graduate of Colgate University in upstate New York, he began his radio career at WQBK-FM in Albany (where he became known as “The Reverend of Rock ‘n’ Roll”), before arriving in Chicago to become music director at WXRT in 1984, helping define that station’s personality.

Brehmer met his wife, Sara Farr, in college. “Yes, we were college sweethearts,” she said Sunday, adding that they dated for 16 years before getting married. “We didn’t want to ruin a good thing,” she said, a smile in her tone. “We got married in 1997 and it was wonderful. I learned very early on that I would have to share Lin with thousands of others. I understood, and was happy to do so because there really was no difference between the man on the radio and the man I knew.”

When Brehmer moved to afternoons, he said in a typically upbeat statement, “Like a veteran center fielder who moves to first base, I look forward to batting second. The exhilaration of being a morning companion to the families that support 93 XRT offset the brutal schedule of someone who likes to go to concerts at night. I’m not 29 anymore. May the phrase, ‘Isn’t it past your bedtime?’ be applied to someone else for a while.”

Last July, Brehmer announced that he would take a leave of absence from the station to continue his treatment, which included radiation, biopsies and drug therapies. He returned to the airwaves in late November, saying in an interview with CBS 2 Chicago’s Jim Williams, “It’s been a rough road. … It turns out I’m getting a temporary break from chemotherapy after my last session … so I’ll have a nice month and a half off with no infusions — and that’s a nice ramp to kind of take off and see how I do, and see how I can handle doing a radio show — and also fighting cancer at the same time.”

His return delighted his fans and friends. Many of them were crushed by the news of his death Sunday and shared bright memories and tearful sentiments.

Joe Shanahan, the owner of music club Metro, told me, “The nights at Metro and the days at Wrigley, he truly helped define a new spin on ‘doubleheader.’ He will be so missed as he touched everyone in his own special way. I am just reeling. I have been praying and crying all morning.”

A devoted Cubs fan and well known in Chicago, Brehmer was the most accessible of “celebrities,” posing for photos, engaging in conversations with fans at a variety of events of the charitable and entertaining type. In addition to his personality-touched song selections as a disc jockey, he was at his erudite best in his own artfully written on-air essays, which he called “Lin’s Bin.”

“Lin did radio with uncommon humanity,” said Chicago artist and actor Tony Fitzpatrick. “He was as good and warm as anyone has ever been on air.”

In a guest column Brehmer contributed in 2012 for the Tribune’s Printers Row Journal, he wrote: “‘Lin’s Bin’ starts with a question. … Where does the time go? Why are teenagers so cranky? The questions come from clueless frat boys, from wistful mothers, from grade school kids trying to understand older brothers and sisters. … I choose a question based on a simple test. Will I be able to answer this? If I think I can, I pursue its conclusion without pity. I have never turned back.”

In 2013, he told the Tribune’s Teddy Greenstein he had been to nearly 1,500 rock concerts, and his favorite was a semisecret show at the Double Door in 1997 by the Rolling Stones. WXRT received only three tickets, taken by others, but Brehmer said a friend in public relations saw him and waved him in.

He was known self-effacingly as “your best friend in the whole world.” There is today an intense poignancy to another of his catchphrases, one with which he ended each daily program: “Never take anything for granted, it’s great to be alive.”

Brehmer is survived by his wife and son and will be memorialized on WXRT-FM 93.1 with a special block of programming beginning at 10 a.m. Monday, the time that Brehmer’s show regularly began. Further memorials are being planned.

rkogan@chicagotribune.com