JOPLIN (SNS) - Long-time classical music radio personality Karl Haas, host of Adventures in Good Music, heard on radio stations throughout the world, died Sunday, Feb. 6, in Detroit. He was 91.
His program, which brought musical enjoyment to millions of listeners, was for many years the most listened to classical music radio program in the world, carried by hundreds of stations in the United States, nations abroad and Armed Forces Radio.
Locally Haas was the 2000 winner of the Fine Arts Radio Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Klassix Society/Friends of KXMS at Missouri Southern State University-Joplin.
"The original Fine Arts Radio Lifetime Achievement Award was formulated because of the achievements of Mr. Haas, said Jeffrey Skibbe, General Manager of 88.7/KXMS Radio at Southern. Since then it has been awarded to four others, all serving the cause of classical music through the medium of radio. The Klassix Society/Friends of KXMS will likely rename the award 'The Karl Haas Award' at their next monthly meeting on Feb.14."
Haas received many major awards both foreign and domestic. They included two George Foster Peabody Awards for excellence in broadcasting, and the National Telemedia Award and Person of the Year award from Bostons WGBH.
President George H.W. Bush in 1991 awarded him the National Endowment for the Humanities prestigious Charles Frankel Award. In 1997, he was the first classical personality to be inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame, and in 2000 he garnered a lifetime achievement award from Fine Arts Radio.
Haas was born on December 6, 1913 in Speyer-on-the-Rhine, Germany, where his deep appreciation for classical music began at the age of 6 with his first piano lesson given by his mother. In 1936, denied a job because he was Jewish, he left Germany and emigrated to the United States, settling in Detroit and working to earn the money to help his family and his future wife, Trudie, follow him a year later.
In 1950, Haas began his broadcasting career hosting a weekly preview of Detroit Symphony Orchestra concerts on WWJ, Detroit. In 1959, Adventures in Good Music was born at WJR in Detroit.
He is survived by sons Jeffrey and Andrew; a daughter, Alyce; and two grandchildren. Haas' wife, Trudie, died in 1977.
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