Music / Press & broadcasting
Karl Haas
1913–2005 · classical music radio host, pianist, musicologist
German Jewish émigré who settled in Detroit and in 1959 launched Adventures in Good Music on WJR, which became the world's most widely heard classical music radio program.
- Born
Speyer, Germany- Died
Royal Oak, Michigan
aged 91- Detroit years
- 1936–1970s, 2000s
- Field
- Music, Press & broadcasting
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Haas was born in Speyer in 1913, studied at the Mannheim Conservatory and Heidelberg University and took piano lessons from Artur Schnabel. As a Jew facing the rise of Nazism, he fled Germany for the United States in 1936 and first settled in Detroit. In 1959 he began Adventures in Good Music on WJR, the Detroit station broadcasting from the 'Golden Tower' of the Fisher Building. Each program opened with his warm 'Hello, everyone' and the slow movement of Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata, which he played live himself, and his humane, story-rich explanations made classical music welcoming to ordinary listeners. National syndication began in 1970 through Cleveland's WCLV, and at its peak the show ran on more than 400 stations worldwide. He won two Peabody Awards and the Charles Frankel Award, and in 1997 became the first classical broadcaster in the National Radio Hall of Fame. He returned to the Detroit area late in life and died in Royal Oak in 2005.
Highlights
- Created Adventures in Good Music on WJR Detroit in 1959
- Show heard on more than 400 stations at its peak
- Two Peabody Awards; Charles Frankel Award (1991)
- First classical broadcaster in the National Radio Hall of Fame (1997)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1959–1970s
Fisher Building
WJR has broadcast from the Fisher Building's 'Golden Tower' since 1928; Haas launched Adventures in Good Music on the station in 1959.