Retired WNEM TV-5 Reporter, WRIF-FM DJ Jay Brandow Dies

Jay Brandow

Retired WNEM news reporter Jay Brandow passed away this past Tuesday (4/12) at the age 67. He worked as a reporter at WNEM starting in 1984 up until his retirement in 2011. At his retirement, he told his colleagues about working at WNEM, “It’s been my home. It’s been my family. If I had to do it all over again, I would be here doing it all over again.”

He came to WNEM after working as a radio disc jockey at WRIF-FM in Detroit from 1974 to 1982.

In retirement he worked as an instructor in the broadcasting departments at Delta College and Central Michigan University. At the age of 50, Brandow also become an author publishing his first non-fiction work titled “The Captain’s Chair” about a sole survivor of a ship wreck in Lake Superior.

Brandow, was a native of Standish.  Aside from his broadcasting work, he also was an accomplished musician and played guitar with the Michigan band ? and the Mysterians.

“He’s going to be missed by a lot of people,” said MLive’s Mark Torregrossa, who worked with Brandow for five years at WNEM. “He wasn’t the kind of co-worker who disappeared after he retired. He still kept in touch with people and hung out with them.”

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

WNEM-TV aired a tribute to Brandow: