The AM Forum

June 22, 2005


Electro-Voice - TenTec founder dies
Albert R. Kahn, inventor and audio pioneer, was 98.

CASSOPOLIS (AP) -- Albert R. Kahn, an inventor who co-founded Electro-Voice Inc., a pioneering company in audio technology, has died. He was 98.

Mr. Kahn died of pneumonia at his Cassopolis home June 15, according to Connelly Funeral Home.

He was born July 9, 1906, in La Salle, Ill., and moved to South Bend in 1912. He lived in the area near the Michigan-Indiana border he rest of his life.

According to Electro-Voice's Web site, Kahn and local machinist Lou Burroughs founded a radio service shop in the basement of Century Tire and Rubber Co. in South Bend.

Three years later, they developed a portable public address system for Knute Rockne that allowed the legendary University of Notre Dame football coach to simultaneously instruct his players during drills on four adjacent fields. Rockne called the system his "electric voice," and Kahn and Burroughs changed the company's name to Electro-Voice.

The company invented the stereo magnetic phono cartridge in 1957. Six years later, it received the first Academy Award ever given for an audio product.

Kahn was president of the company from its founding until 1969, when Gulton Industries Inc. acquired it. In 1970, he co-founded radio equipment maker Ten-Tec Inc. in Sevierville, Tenn.

His wife, Anne, died Oct. 4, 2001. Survivors include three daughters, nine grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned for July 16 at the Diamond Cove Missionary Church in