Lynn Tolliver Jr., a radio personality from Cleveland, died on February 13 at the age of 71. Since the early 1980s, he has been a prominent DJ on 93.1 WZAK. Lynn died of an unexplained disease, according to WKSU. The radio station verified the news in a social media post, writing:
“A Cleveland icon has died. Lynn Tolliver Jr. was the man who introduced big-time radio to WZAK in the 1980s. At this moment, our thoughts and prayers are with his immediate family.”
All About Lynn Tolliver Jr.
Lynn was a well-known radio personality who helped put the WZAK radio station on the map in the 1980s. He remained at the station until 2000, after which he retired and continued to transmit his internet radio station, Radio 9311. Tolliver spent most of his career in radio after working in factories, releasing a few successful radio projects, working as a promoter, and spending five years with the United States Postal Service. He was an urban contemporary program director at Detroit’s MCA before moving to Cleveland.
According to the Cleveland Association of Broadcasters, he arranged pranks during his broadcasts. He gave prizes to listeners who showed up with the most enormous cockroaches or put underpants on their heads. In 1993, his radio stations received three Billboard Awards. Lynn was the first Black person to get the Excellence in Broadcasting award from the Cleveland Association of Broadcasters. Lynn worked at WZAK for three decades. In addition to being a radio personality, he was an artist who released songs with his group S*xual Harassment. He even created the song “I Need a Freak” in 1983. He won a case against a former partner on I Need a Freak who licensed the song’s usage without his authorization. It was sampled in the song My Humps by Black Eyed Peas, which prompted the copyright infringement lawsuit.
