Bill McGlaughlin
is 2004 Fine Arts Radio International^®
Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree

Bill McGlaughlin is chosen as this year's honoree because he has taken up the music education baton implicitly passed to him by the late Karl Haas whose Adventures in Good Music has metamorphized into Exploring Music with an ear tuned to the evolving trends of the twenty-first century classical audience. Prior to the inaugural year of Exploring Music, the former music director of the Kansas City Symphony (1986-1997) maintained a high profile in music education on the national level for almost twent-five years through his excellent weekly radio series St. Paul Sunday, produced by Public Radio International, and the perennial nationally syndicated series Center Stage from Wolf Trap.

The Fine Arts Radio International® Awards were launched in 2000 to seek out achievement in classical music education through the medium of radio. A separate honor was created to recognize Karl Haas' 40+ year committment to classical music education. Karl Haas, producer and host of Adventures in Good Music, was the inaugural recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award. "Karl's Club" continued with additional inductees: Peter Schickele (2001), Martin Bookspan (2002), and Leonard Slatkin (2003), all subsequently having been recognized for their outstanding radio (and extra-radio) contributions to music education. Bill McGlaughlin now joins this musical coterie.

The Fine Arts Radio International® Awards are given by The Klassix Society, the independent support organization of 88.7KXMS / Fine Arts Radio International®, which is a cultural resource of Missouri Southern State University, broadcasting and streaming classical music and other fine arts radio programming 24 hours a day. The non-profit Klassix Society was incorporated in 1990.

Contributions in support of the awards' mission may be directed to The Klassix Society at 3950 E. Newman Road, Joplin, Missouri 64801-1595.

Text of the Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient's Letter:

14 February 2005

Bill McGlaughlin
New York, NY 10025

Dear Bill:

Since the eve of the third millennium, the Klassix Society, the Friends of 88.7KXMS/ Fine Arts Radio International , has made excellence in classical music education one of its institutional missions. The result has been two-fold: an annual international contest recognizing the work of radio producers who further classical music education, and a lifetime achievement award bestowed on those who not only produce classical radio, but whose contributions to music education has been quite considerable over a significant span of time.

Had your list of relevant accomplishments stopped with just St. Paul Sunday and Center Stage from Wolf Trap, you would have been recognized for outstanding achievement in the service of classical music education. But, with the recent launch of Exploring Music, produced by WFMT/Chicago, the Klassix Society's choice for the 2004 award was uncontested. Exploring Music with its weekly thematic concept provides the classical radio listener with both in-depth education and compelling radio listening, a balance that is rarely achieved.

The lifetime achievement award has been presented to a well-considered group of honorees   Karl Haas, Peter Schickele, Martin Bookspan, and Leonard Slatkin   all brothers in the medium of radio and all passionate and effective advocates for music education. It is with great pride that we enlarge that brotherhood and hereby present you with the crystal flame of Lifetime Achievement from the Fine Arts Radio International  Awards 2004.

On Behalf of the Klassix Society,

Jeffrey D. Skibbe
General Manager
88.7KXMS/Fine Arts Radio International