Brehmer had recently returned to the station in November after a five month leave while undergoing chemotherapy stating when he left, “I have been fighting prostate cancer for several years. I have worked through various radiation treatments, biopsies, CT Scans, MRI’s and drug therapies. The cancer was caught early, treated early, but it has spread places one would rather it did not spread.”

WXRT will pay tribute to Brehmer with an on-air celebration of life on Monday, January 23 at 10am.

Brehmer first joined WXRT in 1984 as Music Director. After leaving for a year to serve as Program Director at AAA “Cities 97” KTCZ Minneapolis, Brehmer returned to WXRT as morning host in 1991 and would remain in that daypart until the end of 2019 when he would move to middays. He began his career in college at Colgate University’s WRCU-FM Hamilton NY and would spend seven years at “Q104” 103.9 WQBK Cobleskill/Albany NY prior to arriving in Chicago.

Brehmer’s passing was first noted by longtime WXRT colleague Terri Hemmert at the end of her weekly show. In a statement on the station’s website, Hemmert wrote, “It is with a heavy heart that 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 and son by his side. Tomorrow at 10am, his XRT family will celebrate the incredible life of our best friend in the whole world. We’ll hold each other up through this heart-breaking time. Lin would want that. Take nothing for granted.”