Jim Fleming has soothed us with the classics, read to us and informed us. Now, after nearly 40 years, the Madison native is retiring.

Fleming, who started at Wisconsin Public Radio in 1968 first as a student volunteer and then as a paid staffer making $1.65 an hour, has announced that his last show as host of "Morning Classics" will be Dec. 3.

It's unclear if Fleming, 60, blessed with one of broadcasting's most recognizable voices, will continue to read books on "Chapter a Day" or host the nationally syndicated "To the Best of Our Knowledge" heard on 168 stations. Fleming said he plans to spend time with a 2-year-old grandson, travel and catch up on his reading at his Mount Horeb home.

"I have loved feeling as though I was in people's daily lives," Fleming said. "I'm a huge fan of Wisconsin Public Radio and I will miss being there everyday and having that intimate contact (with listeners). It's magic."

Fleming's mother was a violinist and his father, Robben Fleming, the former chancellor of UW-Madison and the former president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Fleming, who spent three years out of radio in the early 1970s because of the Vietnam War, has anchored the classical music lineup with "Morning Classics" since the NPR News and Classical Music Network of WPR was formed in 1990. He had spent the previous 11 years hosting a variety of classical music programs on WPR.

Fleming has received awards for his role in several Wisconsin Public Radio projects, including a 2004 Peabody Award for "To the Best of Our Knowledge" awarded in 2005. He also received the UW-Extension Award for Excellence in 1994.

"We're really grateful for all that Jim has done for the organization, and he's been such a major part of our classical music programming that it's hard to imagine he's leaving," said Phil Corriveau, WPR's chief executive officer.

WPR has 31 stations in Wisconsin and northern Illinois programmed by seven regional studios and carrying programming from three WPR networks: the Ideas Network, the NPR News & Classical Music Network, and the HD2 Classical network.

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