Lin Brehmer spent his most formative radio years in Albany, New York, before becoming one of the most beloved disc jockeys in American broadcasting history at Chicago’s WXRT. His career arc — from the Capital Region airwaves to three decades as Chicago’s quintessential morning voice — is a story of how Upstate New York shaped one of radio’s great talents. When Brehmer died in January 2023, the outpouring of grief from musicians, listeners, and the entire city of Chicago confirmed what his audience had always known: he was irreplaceable.
Albany: Where It Started
Born in August 1954 in New York and raised in Queens, Brehmer discovered his calling at Colgate University’s student station WRCU-FM during a summer semester fill-in shift. After graduating in 1976, his first professional disc jockey job was at WQBK-FM in Albany, where he earned the nickname “The Reverend of Rock and Roll.” He spent seven years at WQBK — from 1977 to 1984 — honing the warm, erudite, and deeply music-literate on-air style that would become his signature. Those Albany years were not a stepping stone; they were the foundation. Brehmer learned to connect with listeners as individuals, to treat every song as a story worth telling, and to bring genuine enthusiasm to the microphone every single shift.
WXRT and a Chicago Institution
In October 1984, Brehmer left Albany for Chicago to become music director at WXRT, the city’s legendary adult album alternative station. During six years as music director, he won FMQB’s “Music Director of the Year” three times, demonstrating an ear for talent that helped define the station’s eclectic playlist. After a one-year stint as program director at KTCZ-FM in Minnesota, he returned to WXRT in 1991 as morning host — a role he would hold for nearly three decades, becoming as much a part of Chicago’s identity as deep-dish pizza or the lakefront.
His segment “Lin’s Bin,” launched in 2002, became legendary — essays in which he answered listener questions while musing on life, music, and pop culture with an intellect and warmth that made him feel like a trusted friend to hundreds of thousands of listeners. Artists from Wilco to Jeff Tweedy to John Cusack publicly credited him with shaping Chicago’s musical culture. Steve Albini called him “the last great radio personality.”
Legacy
Brehmer announced a prostate cancer diagnosis on air in July 2022 and died on January 22, 2023, at age 68. His colleague Terri Hemmert broke the news to WXRT listeners that morning. But the foundation of his remarkable career was laid in Albany — seven years at WQBK where a young disc jockey learned to turn his love of music into an art form that could move an entire city. The Capital Region gave Lin Brehmer his start, and he carried that Upstate sensibility with him for the rest of his life.