To refer to the late Karl Haas as a “disc jockey” is almost an insult. The creator and host of the longest-running daily classical radio music program in broadcast history entitled “Adventures in Good Music,” Karl Haas was and remains an icon in classical radio broadcasting. When I heard the first strains of his theme song, Beethoven’s “Pathétique Sonata (from the 2^nd movement of Sonata No. 8 in C minor) followed by his rich baritone, “Hello, everyone,” I knew that not only would I learn something entirely new and fresh about classical music, but I would be completely entertained in the process.

I had the pleasure of attending a dinner for Karl Haas about 16 years ago. My husband was working at a classical radio station and Karl Haas was in town for a special event. He was one of the most charming men I had ever met. You would think he would be pretentious and somewhat of a bore, but he was witty, funny and engaging throughout the entire evening. After that night, I made a point to listen to his shows whenever I could.

Karl Haas was born in Speyer-am-Rhein, Germany on December 6, 1913. He began piano lessons when he was six years old and later studied piano at the Mannheim Conservatory. He went on to earn a doctorate in music literature from the University of Heidelberg in Germany. After being turned down for a job because he was Jewish, Haas left Germany in 1936.

He settled in Detroit, Michigan where he worked for a year to save money to bring his family and fiancée over a year later. He later studied under the tutelage of Artur Schnabel. He founded the Chamber Music Society of Detroit. His radio work began in 1950 by hosting weekly previews of Detroit Symphony concerts. The Canadian Broadcasting Company then asked him to play for a weekly program, playing piano and conducting a chamber orchestra. Over time, they encouraged him to talk about the music he loved so much during the broadcast and by 1959, WJR in Detroit had offered him an hour-long show of music and commentary. It rose to Detroit’s #1 show in its time slot and remained there for 20 years.

In 1970, he syndicated his show for commercial and public radio stations around the world from a Cleveland, Ohio radio station, WCLV. He also wrote a book, Inside Music, which explains music appreciation for the everyday listener (it remains in print today). He was also an accomplished pianist and conductor.

Haas’ theme song, which was considered his trademark, was personally performed by him and was considered a family heirloom. He started every single show with his famous “Hello everyone…” and even titled a CD by that name. For many years, his program held the most listeners of any classical music show in the world on the radio. What was the most entertaining part of his show was how he presented what could be perceived as “dull” material in a most entertaining way. Some of his show titles included, “Haydn, Go Seek,” “From Stern to Bow” (about violinist Isaac Stern), “The Joy of Sax,” and “Baroque and in Debt.”

One listener wrote to Haas in the 1960s saying that his was a “longhair program with a crewcut,” a description that Haas was delighted to repeat on his show. Although some “longhairs” in the classical music world looked down at Mr. Haas’ work, his listeners didn’t mind a whit!

He received numerous awards for his work, including the Charles Frankel Award of the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1991, which was presented to him by President George H.W. Bush at the White House. He also won the George Foster Peabody Award twice for excellence in radio broadcasting; and in 1997 was named the first classical music broadcaster named to the Radio Hall of Fame.

Karl Haas died in a suburb of Detroit, Royal Oak, Michigan, on February 6, 2005.