Detroit Jazz Hero
Linda Yohn was bit by the radio and jazz bugs growing up in Columbus, Ohio. Since then she has been committed to presenting music on the radio as a form of community service, enriching everyone’s enjoyment.
She came from a musical home, her mother being a mezzo soprano, pianist and music teacher. A liberal arts major at Otterbein University (class of 1973), Linda first “cracked a mic” at the college radio station and fed her jazz interest while working behind the bar at the Columbus club Clyde’s. In ‘77 she commenced learning the craft of radio in earnest at WBBY-FM in Westerville, Ohio, and in ‘82 moved to public radio at Kent State University (WKSU-FM) where she was entrusted with a wide range of responsibilities including jazz and traditional music director.
This job put Yohn in touch with national music networks and eventually landed her a job as an account executive and publicist for Peter Levinson Communications in New York, serving top tier jazz clients such as the Count Basie Orchestra, Mel Tormé and George Shearing. But by late ‘87 she was back in the Midwest serving as music director at WEMU-FM, a job she held for 30 years.
Linda shaped the station’s sound to represent an inclusive approach to jazz, blues, Latin and Americana music. She developed a new generation of broadcasters; Eastern Michigan students and community members learned the radio ropes and pleasures of jazz from her kind and enthusiastic coaching. She developed a deep relationship between WEMU and the Detroit Jazz Festival, which continues to this day, and she continues to consult to the fest. She became further recognized in Detroit for her support of local musicians as she joined the board of the Graystone Jazz Museum and staffed Paradise Valley Jazz fundraisers for Orchestra Hall.
Linda retired from WEMU in 2017, but not from her life in music. She’s written liner notes for PKO Records and cd reviews on her “Music Marketer” Facebook page. She’s on the staff of the Ann Arbor Summer Festival as the Acoustic Stage Manager, and has advised Ann Arbor’s Blue LLama Jazz Club. She persistently gives back to the jazz and arts community – serving on boards and volunteering for Ypsilanti’s Riverside Arts Center, the Southeastern Michigan Jazz Association, Vincent York’s Jazzistry, Creative Washtenaw and Ypsilanti First United Methodist Church.
Of course, Detroit area Jazz Hero Linda Yohn has not abandoned radio: she is, we’re happy to say, still on-air, hosting WRCJ’s Sunday Swing Set. Hear for yourself! — Lars Bjorn
