Former WWF Announcer, Music Industry Expert Kal Rudman Passes Away

Kal Rudman who was known among wrestling fans for his work for WWF in the 1970s and 1980s, has passed away. Inquirer.com reports that Rudman, who was also a known TV and radio personality in the Philadelphia area, passed this week of heart disease at the age of 91. His wife Lucille also passed on Thursday.

Rudman was known in the Philadelphia area as “the Man with the Golden Ears” and became known in the 1960s and 1970s as a radio DJ. He went on to write the Friday Morning Quarterback, an industry publication that predicted which songs would be hits with impressive accuracy. He was also the first-ever R&B editor for Billboard Magazine.

To wrestling fans, he was known as one of the voices of WWE’s monthly broadcasts from the Philadelphia Spectrum alongside Gorilla Monsoon. Rudman also handled backstage interviews and sometimes worked Madison Square Garden shows and WWF Championship Wrestling TV. His run with the company lasted until WWE’s agreement with PRISM to air the Philly shows ended in 1989.

Rudman was also the music expert on The Merv Griffin Show in the 1980s and appeared on The Today Show often. Rudman and his wife became philanthropists later in life and funded programs at Drexel and Temple Universities including the Kal & Lucille Rudman Institute for Entertainment Industry Studies at Drexel, and the Kal & Lucille Rudman Media Production Center at Temple.

On behalf of 411, our condolences to the family, friends and fans of Mr. and Mrs. Rudman.