WXRT host Lyn Bremer dies at 68

Lin Bremer often ended his segment of “Lin’s Bin” radio articles by saying, “You don’t take anything for granted. It’s great to be alive.”

That was the mantra for years for the host of WXRT (93.1) — who became a household name in Chicago, known for his wit and sense of humor.

Bremer passed away on Sunday at the age of 68.

“It is with a heavy heart that we must inform you that we have all lost our best friend. Len Bremer fought cancer as best he could,” fellow host Terry Hemmert wrote in a post Sunday morning. “He passed away early this morning, peacefully, with his wife and son by his side.”

Primer announce This past July, he was taking a break from the station to undergo chemotherapy for prostate cancer. He said he had been undergoing several treatments, including radiotherapy and drugs, “for several years.” He briefly returned to the air in November, Says CBS2-Chicago “Radio Was My Life”.

Bremer had been with WXRT for over three decades, mostly as a morning DJ until he moved into the mid-2020s. He is perhaps best known for his podcasts called “Lin’s Bin”.

The passage consisted of his response to a listener’s question, blending prose with his encyclopedic knowledge of music and popular culture. Lin’s Bin was often funny and sometimes serious.

These essays satisfied a creative longing for Bremer, who had developed a love of literature in high school. “It’s a creative outlet. There’s no one looking over my shoulder,” Bremmer Tell The Sun-Times in 2018.

Messages honoring Bremer went viral on social media in the hours following his death.

“Chicago has lost its best friend,” said US Rep. Mike Quigley He said on Twitter.

Bremer, a die-hard Cubs fan, had his name displayed on the marquee at Wrigley Field on Sunday afternoon.

Bremer was born in Queens, New York, and began his career in radio as a Sunday morning DJ in Albany. The first song he ever played as a professional DJ was “Within You Without You” by the Beatles because “I always felt life flowing inside of you, but most of all without you,” Bremer He said in 2017.

At that party, he was nicknamed “The Reverend” because he was reciting poetry over the song’s introductions. “I would slip into Dylan Thomas or William Wordsworth,” he once said Tell Sun Times.

Bremer moved to Chicago in 1984 to be XRT’s Music Director. He worked behind the scenes until 1990, then worked in radio for a short time in Minneapolis. “I was there for 12 months, had a great time… Then I found out the owner of my radio station was broke. He made things very difficult,” Bremer said.

He returned to XRT the following year and took Hemmert’s place as the morning DJ.

Bremer once described himself as a “bump player”.

“It’s just not me,” he told the Sun-Times. “The closest I get to a shock is standing up for civil rights or religious freedom. That’s pretty shocking these days.”

Bremer was a serious Cubs fan and loved to play with his son in his yard, V.T. said interview on ‘XRT’ in 2017.

He also had a lifelong affinity for sailing on Lake Michigan. “There’s something about that moment when you raise the sails and shut the engine and there’s nothing but the sound of the wind. It’s one of the greatest moments you can have,” he said in the interview.

I also love the Chicago theatre, music and dinner. “I love eating out in Chicago,” Brimmer said. “Whether it’s Italian beef with chili or a 12-course menu in Acadia, I love the culinary scene here.

“And of course the most important thing is the music: from Chicago blues, from going to Buddy Guy’s Legends, to seeing all the artists who choose Chicago as one of their main stops on their tours,” he said.

Heimert wrote that WXRT will celebrate Bremer’s life Monday at 10 a.m.

“We will carry each other through this painful time. Lynn wants to. Don’t take anything for granted,” Hemmert wrote.