Home » Journalism and Writing Articles » GGM Advisory Board Member Robert K. Trachinger dies longtime ABC executive, UCLA professor
GGM Advisory Board Member Robert K. Trachinger dies longtime ABC executive, UCLA professor
Robert Trachinger dies at 86; longtime ABC executive, UCLA professor His contributions at ABC included the development of electronic hand-held and underwater cameras, as well as helping to pioneer a device for sports replays.
LOS ANGELES, CA, October 16, 2010 /Journalism and Writing PR News/ -- Robert Trachinger, a longtime ABC television executive and professor at UCLA's school of theater, film and television, has died. He was 86.
Robert Trachinger was also since 1999 a member of the advisory board of
General Global Media.
Trachinger died Sept. 19 of heart failure at Scripps Memorial Hospital
in La Jolla, his family said.
He retired from ABC in 1985 as a vice president after a wide-ranging
career with the network and its affiliate in Los Angeles, KABC. His
titles included vice president and general manager of broadcast
operations and engineering on the West Coast.
Trachinger was born Nov. 26, 1923, in New York. He started a 35-year
career with ABC in 1950 after working for a TV station in Milwaukee. He
taught at UCLA for 30 years, starting in 1968. In 1998 he became a
professor emeritus.
In a 1976 interview with Playboy magazine, ABC broadcasting pioneer
Roone Arledge discussed Trachinger's influence at the network as a
technological innovator.
Arledge recounted a 1960 conversation with Trachinger at an L.A.
restaurant after visiting the Coliseum to prepare for a college football
game.
"I asked him if it would be possible to replay something in slow motion
so you could tell if a guy was safe or out or stepped out of bounds and
Trach immediately began sketching on the napkins," Arledge said. "We
talked and sketched and drank beer that whole afternoon and when we were
finished, we had the plans for the first instant-replay device."
Arledge said Trachinger was "just an extremely creative guy" whose
contributions at ABC included the development of electronic hand-held
and underwater cameras.
EBIZZ.TV donates the ROBERT TRACHINGER AWARD FOR EXCELLENT YOUNG MEDIA
PROFESSIONALS in honor of media pioneer Robert Trachinger - for his professional
and humanistic values - to young international media artists and our current new
world of media professionals.
Robert Trachinger stands for responsibility and sensitivity to the human
condition: the artistic and managerial courage to tell today's stories well.
The award is valued $ 10.000,-.
About Robert Trachinger (born 1923, New York, NY)
Robert Trachinger's professional life combined the corporate world and academia.
He is Professor Emeritus of UCLA and a Fulbright scholar. From 1968 to 1998 he
taught at UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television, with emphasis on
humanistic leadership, ethics, creative media skills, production competence, and
the remarkable art of storytelling.
His original career was in television. He retired in 1985 as Vice President and
General Manager of ABC-TV in Hollywood, California.
A television pioneer, Robert Trachinger had joined WTMJ-TV, Milwaukee/Wisconsin,
in 1948 as cameraman and video operations engineer. In 1950, the American
Broadcasting Company in Hollywood hired him as cameraman evolving into a 35-year
tenure. He was Technical Director on many of the network's first coast-to-coast
shows. When promoted to Manager of Broadcast Engineering in 1958, he worked side
by side with Roone Arledge, President of ABC-TV Sports, on the evolution and
development of innovative concepts revolutionary for television sports
production. In 1964, he was made Director of Program Development and Operations
at ABC Sports in New York. In that capacity, he was involved in the production,
development, and design of many shows, including the "American Sportsman". He
produced and supervised shows in Kenya, India, France, Russia, and throughout
the United States.
Robert Trachinger is best known in engineering circles for initiating the
original concept and experimental work resulting in the first successful
black-and-white slow motion videotape. He was responsible for the development of
the first broadcast quality hand-held cameras which were the forerunners of the
electronic news gathering (ENG) cameras. The underwater electronic camera was
developed in his home swimming pool. All of these creative innovations were
exclusive to ABC-TV for years and contributed greatly to ABC Sports' foremost
position. The National Association of Broadcasters honored him for his work on
the development of videotape.
1966 saw him promoted to Executive Producer for ABC's owned television station
in Los Angeles. He won two EMMY AWARDS for documentaries and was recognized for
"Decision to Die" which exposed and explored the high rate of suicide among
American adolescents - a subject which had been unmentionable in TV for 20
years. UCLA invited him to a symposium on the production of his documentaries
which grew into the avocation of teaching. This led to his parallel academic
career spanning over 30 years at UCLA.
In 1971, UCLA recruited him for a year to reorganize its Media Center. He then
returned to ABC-TV and maintained his professional relationship with the
university. Robert Trachinger was promoted to Vice President of ABC-Television
in 1978. In 1980, he was assigned the additional duties of Executive in charge
of Broadcast Operations and Engineering for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los
Angeles.
Upon retiring from ABC-TV after 35 years, Robert Trachinger received a one year
Fulbright-Award as Senior Professor at Gutenberg University, Institut fuer
Publizistik, Mainz/Germany, in 1985-86. Professor Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann and
Professor Hans-Mathias Kepplinger were hosts. Teaching German students in
English to create television productions was an eye-opening cross-cultural
enrichment. During the Fulbright year, he followed invitations to teach at the
Sorbonne in Paris and Tel Aviv University.
Back in the USA, he occasionally taught at the College of Santa Fe, New Mexico,
where he also fostered a partnership between academia and the corporate world.
Trained as a para-professional in the field of psychology, Robert Trachinger has
worked with young people in Upward Bound programs and facilitated encounter
groups for disadvantaged youths. After moving from Los Angeles to San Diego in
1989, he lectured at the University of California San Diego, and became a
counselor for caregivers of Alzheimers patients. Counseling young people is an
ongoing avocation.
In the new millenium, Robert Trachinger lived with is wife Helga in Rancho
Santa Fe, California.
Trachinger is survived by his wife, Helga, daughter Mia, son Set and a
granddaughter, Lotte.
Publisher Magister Bernd Pulch comments. "We will never forget Robert
Trachinger and continue to carry on his legacy."
The .
EBIZZTV
http://www.ebizz.tv
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