The 2011 Karl Haas Prize for Music Education
from the Klassix Society/Friends of KXMS
of Missouri Southern State University has been
awarded to WCLV’s President and co-founder
Robert Conrad.

 

Jeffrey Skibbe, General Manager of the Klassx
Society and KXMS, Joplin, Missouri, said
that, " the Prize is given to outstanding people
in the radio industry, worldwide, who have
demonstrated leadership in cultural heritage
transmission and music education.
(Conrad has) shown outstanding guidance in both, having shepherded WCLV in
becoming a long-lasting community member and cultural asset to Cleveland."

 

The Prize presentation goes on to say, “ First, and most obvious , this award and the values it
celebrates is, in part, a direct result of (Conrad’s) personal fostering of the talent that was Karl
Haas. Karl’s four decades of music education via the radio medium remains unsurpassed to
this day. 

“(Conrad's) contribution of the state-of-the-art Conrad control room at the Cleveland
Institute of Music, the move to the Idea Center on Playhouse Square and the expanded
cultural/educational capabilities that this closer association with ideastream will provide….
WCLV, underscores why...Robert D. Conrad (is) so richly deserving of this particular recognition.”

Conrad is the third person associated with WCLV to receive the Karl Haas Prize.  Karl won the
initial prize, now named for him, in 2000. Eric Benjamin’s “Klassical Kids, spelled with a K” was
the other grantee, awarded in 2002,

Among the past award winners are Michael Tilson Thomas, Peter Shickele, Leonard Slatkin,
"Performance Today" and Chrisopher O'Riley. The 2010 winner was Peter Van de Graaff
of WFMT, Chicago. WCLV listeners will remember him as the all-night host on WCLV 
for a number of years.