TV TECHNICAL PIONEER TRACHINGER DIES AT 86

Robert “Bob” Trachinger, who pioneered such technical innovations in TV’s early days as slow-motion videotape and the handheld camera in sports coverage, died September 19 in La Jolla, CA of heart failure at age 86, it was announced on Tuesday. He spent nearly all of his career at ABC, where he also produced documentaries, including two that won Emmy awards, and later served as general manager of the network’s owned-and-operated outlet, KABC-TV, where he first started out as a cameraman in the 1950s. Following his retirement, he entered academia, teaching at universities in Germany, France, and Israel, then returned to the U.S. where he taught at the College of Santa Fe, New Mexico and the University of California at San Diego.