Feder: Why new morning host Richard Milne loves WXRT 'and everything it stands for'

Thirty-four years after Richard Milne joined WXRT 93.1-FM as weekend overnight host, he's about to become the face and the voice of morning drive at "Chicago's Finest Rock," Robert Feder writes.

As dawn breaks on Monday, he'll follow Chicago radio icons Lin Brehmer and Terri Hemmert as only the third morning personality at the Entercom adult album alternative station since 1981.

"We are blessed to have someone of Richard's character, charm, music knowledge and wit to take over for Lin," said Greg Solk, operations manager and program director of WXRT. "It's Richard's turn to get in early and rock Chicago."

It was Solk who promoted Milne from part-time status to afternoon drive in 2018, then to middays in place of Hemmert last July, and now to the station's top job in mornings. (Brehmer is moving to middays - from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. - effective Monday.)

For Milne, 60, a lifelong Chicagoan and music aficionado who "fell head over heels" for WXRT as a kid, this all must seem like a proverbial dream come true.

The Addison Trail High School alum, who started in college radio at Southern Illinois University and worked at the former WDEK in DeKalb, joined WXRT in 1986.

Read more on Milne's thoughts on the two legends he is succeeding, the music he treasures, and his vision for the show at robertfeder.com.