Meeting Lin Bremer
On best friends, and powering through the morning...
Meeting my Heroes is an occasional essay series from Matt Carmichael.
Lin Brehmer was the morning DJ on WXRT for most of my Chicago-living life. Like John on KEXP, he had a couple of mantras. One, that he was your best friend in the whole wide world. And two, that it’s great to be alive. And it was great when he was alive.
Lin Brehmer was a Chicago treasure. When he died in 2023, it seemed like every social feed in Chicago was filled with photos of one’s friends standing next to him. Because as he always said, he was everywhere. He was smiling in all of those photos. And it was genuine.
I don't think I have a photo with Lin because when I was with him, I was the guy with the camera. I was kind of the house photographer for XRT for years, back in the day.
I by no means knew him well but I enjoyed the times I spent with or near him. Having an early drink on Opening Day with him and Jon Langford (who might have been one or two ahead of me). Or seeing him at shows. Or events I was working.
He seemed to live every day and eat meal to the fullest. He got me through many a morning, seeming to take on the exhaustion and hangover of an entire city - playing the music to power us through. Because the thing with waking up to Lin Brehmer every day was that he always sounded like he had a longer night, and rougher morning than I did. And yet, there he was. At work, doing his thing and entertaining his best friends in the whole wide world.
So what excuse did I have for dragging?
His Lins’ Bin audio essays were so amazing literate, both in terms of music and the written word that it’s hard to describe. And it’s sad that licensing means almost none of them are available any more, although this might have been his final one. He had just returned from cancer treatment and wanted to thank everyone for their support. I remember listening to it in the car on the way back from a softball bullpen and explaining who Lin was and why it was significant.
One of the last things he posted on his socials was this interview with Frank Orrall of Poi Dog Pondering – just two old friends hanging out in a backstage bathroom, telling stories.
After Livability named the awesome and thoughtful Winona Dimeo-Ediger my successor as editor there, they flew her up to Oak Park to get a brain dump from me, and also see one of the Best Places to Live in action. We planned to go to a Cubs game, but it was raining so we hung out that the Gman waiting it out. I told a couple stories about Lin, who was also one of the biggest Cubs fans the team has ever known. Lin had a Cubs fan level of hope, but he applied it to… everything.
Eventually the game was rained out but we burned our tickets to duck in so I could at least show her around Wrigley. As we emerged, we of course ran into Lin waiting for his wife to pick him up outside. He really was everywhere. I told him that I’d just been telling Winona what an institution he was for this great city of ours.
Even tho it had been years, he clearly remembered me and asked about Pam, who had known him better and longer. I mean, this guy must have known thousands of people in this town and been known by hundreds of thousands. But he kept us straight in his head. He was always friendly and approachable and in good spirits. And always kind.
I don’t know how he did it. Any of it.
Looking back, that would be the last time I’d see him. I’m glad to have one more chance to say some nice things to him, too.
And although he'd glare at me for name-checking what he considered the worst song ever written, he truly built this city on rocknroll...