A Petition for Continuing Classic99.com

A Petition for Continuing Classic99.com
To the Rev. Matthew Harrison

The Rev. Matthew Harrison
Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod
St. Louis, Missouri




July 2010

We are honored to write you as you prepare to assume your leadership role as President of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. Congratulations on your new position.


We are former listeners of KFUO-FM, the storied classical music radio ministry which existed for more than two generations in St. Louis. We are people old and young, of many backgrounds, born in different places but brought together by a love of fine music. We have listened to and, yes, been ministered to by the greatest music of all the ages -- from the Renaissance (and before) down to the present time. We have heard the energy of Elizabethan dance music, the spiritual offerings of J. S. Bach, the genius and rollicking good will of W. A. Mozart, the gargantuan talent of Beethoven, the grandeur of Brahms, the ethereal and substantive music of Mahler, and so many others. Composers of Finland, Hungary, Russia, France, Germany, England, and America among many other lands, have been heard in astonishing variety. Many of us have felt drawn closer to the majesty and love of God.


All the music has been hosted by professional and talented program hosts who have brought their own personalities in a continuous presentation of the music of the past for today. The way this has enriched our lives can hardly be described. While ill we have heard the healing touch of music. While joyous we have celebrated Christmas Day accompanied by a vast variety of holiday music. While mourning we have been touched by Faure's Requiem.

The loss we feel is hard to describe. It is not so much like losing a friend, as losing a whole family. While we have and will continue to find other means of listening to great classical music, for now the loss is real and painful. And truly nothing will ever truly replace the special spirit of Classic 99.


It is not our purpose to delve into all the reasons this tragedy (and it is that) has come to be. Yet we can't help wondering why any upstanding institution would allow such a loss to occur. Time and history will doubtless fill in the answers. To say that we respectfully protest this loss, is a given. To say we want this music back on the air, is of course, bedrock.


For now, we ask for your encouragement and support to keep Classic99.com alive and well for the foreseeable future. As you can imagine, starting a new classical music station from scratch is not an easy matter and will take some time. In the meantime, we are being greatly enriched by this on-line stream of fine music. May it be available for a good long time to come.


We thank the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod for all the years of support for KFUO-FM. We do not take this dedication lightly and we remember it with fondness. May the regret of us all at our recent loss spur us on to a new dedication as we seek to maintain classical music on the air for the next generations. To this cause we most earnestly solicit your support.