Alan Robert Kalter was an American television announcer, best
known as the announcer for the Late Show with David Letterman. Kalter died at
the age of 78 on Monday at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut.

Born on March 21, 1943, in Brooklyn, New York, Kalter
attended Hobart College in Geneva, New York. He taught high school English on
Long Island in the late 1960s before moving into radio broadcasting.

Kalter did hundreds of voiceovers for national radio and
television commercials and was also the lead continuity voice for the USA Network
throughout much of the 1980s. He voiced promos for SportsChannel America in the
early 1990s.

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Kalter was the voice of the Michelin Man and the USA Network
and the announcer for “Commander USA’s Groovie Movies” on the USA Network.
He also was the announcer for New York-based game shows, including “To Tell the
Truth” and “The $10,000 Pyramid.”

 He will be best
remembered for the opening introductions on the “Late Show with David
Letterman” on CBS from September 1995 until Letterman’s last episode on
May 20, 2015, having taken the mantle after Bill Wendell’s retirement. As
Letterman would walk and run onto the stage, Kalter would introduce him with a
sarcastic flair as “the king of unsocial media,” “nocturnal rainforest mammal”
and other monikers.

“Whatever else, we always had the best announcer in television. Wonderful voice and eagerness to play a goofy character of himself. Did I mention he could sing? Yes, he could. He enthusiastically did it all. A very sad day, but many great memories,” the Associated Press quoted Letterman as saying.

He also hosted “Alan Kalter’s Celebrity Interview” that ran
concurrently with “The Late Show”.

“Beyond his fame and his golden voice, Alan was a past
president of TBE and a true mensch, who was deeply committed to Jewish values
and the Jewish people and was especially devoted to this, his home community,” Rabbi
Joshua Hammerman of Temple Beth El, the synagogue Kalter attended, said in a
statement.