Acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin calls for KDHX to remain alive and local in St. Louis
For immediate release
April 10, 2025. St. Louis, MO. Leonard Slatkin, beloved Conductor Emeritus of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and world-renowned composer and author, has released a public statement calling for 88.1 KDHX to remain the vibrant, independent, community radio station in St. Louis.
In the statement, attached to this release and pasted below, Slatkin states, “KDHX is at risk of being sold to an out-of-town conglomerate. We cannot afford to lose this valuable community resource and communication tool.”
Slatkin is one of the original founders of KDHX, having signed the Double Helix (the station’s parent company) Articles of Incorporation of 1971. He has long championed music and the arts in St. Louis, and his statement expresses his great love for KDHX, and its irreplaceable place in the community.
While KDHX is at risk, it has not been sold. Many individuals and groups, including the League of Volunteer Enthusiasts (LOVE) of KDHX, continue to work together within the legal system and within the community to stop the sale to the Tennessee conglomerate of K-Love, Inc.
We are all united in keeping KDHX alive and local in St. Louis, and we thank the maestro, Leonard Slatkin, for his generous words of support.
Donate to our efforts to defend the KDHX license and revive community radio in St. Louis.
Statement on the KDHX Crisis
Leonard Slatkin
Radio is one of the last bastions of the imagination. Living in the age of visual media, we are bombarded with images day and night. These represent the thoughts of others, and although they can provoke discussion and even dissent, the pictures cannot be altered by our minds.
When I moved to St. Louis in 1968, there was this lonely looking house on Olive Blvd. in what used to be Gaslight Square. From that building, the sounds of a new generation could be heard. KDNA was the place you went when you wanted something stimulating and different. But more than that, it offered us the opportunity to create our own representations of the sounds we were hearing. Our minds came alive.
Today, through its successor, KDHX, much of that imaginative spirit lives on in the form of exceptional music, arts, issues, and culture programming. However, recent events have put the station in a difficult financial position, and KDHX is at risk of being sold to an out-of-town conglomerate. We cannot afford to lose this valuable community resource and communication tool.
Please help keep KDHX alive and local by supporting the campaign to save community radio in St. Louis. Long may it thrive.
Leonard Slatkin
Conductor Emeritus of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin is a composer, author, Grammy Award winner, and National Medal of the Arts honoree. He is one of the original founders of the Double Helix corporation, the parent company of KDHX. His name and signature are on the original Double Helix Articles of Incorporation of 1971.