Executive at Channel 6 developed 'Action News'

George Applegate Koehler, 87, a former television executive who developed

Action News

for what is now 6ABC, died of a stroke July 5 at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del.

Mr. Koehler, a decorated World War II veteran, became ill at his home in Pilesgrove, N.J., on the Fourth of July hours before he was to be grand marshal of the Woodstown/Pilesgrove Independence Day Parade.

In 1970, he was general manager of the radio and television division of Triangle Publications, which included WFIL-TV (Channel 6). At the time, WFIL's news program was so unpopular it frequently finished fourth behind a cartoon show on an independent channel. Mr. Koehler was determined to create a snappier name and format for the program, he later told an Inquirer reporter, and was driving across the Ben Franklin Bridge on his way to work when he had a brainstorm. "It occurred to me that Action News would portray what we were trying to do," he said.

Mr. Koehler chose WFIL news reporter Larry Kane to anchor Action News, which debuted in April 1970. By April 1971, it was the No. 1 news program in the Philadelphia market.

Its success was "unprecedented," Kane said. Though Channels 3 and 10 featured news icons Vince Leonard and John Facenda, the public apparently preferred Kane's machine-gun delivery and the new program's high-energy format.

"George had clear thinking about the market," Kane said. "He understood you have to have genuine community involvement. We covered not just the city but the suburbs. He hired very creative people and launched an extraordinary promotion campaign."

Action News on Channel 6, now formally WPVI-TV, has remained No. 1 in the Philadelphia market for more than 35 years, and its format has been copied all over the country.

In 1972, Mr. Koehler and partners purchased Triangle Publications television stations in Binghamton, N.Y., Lancaster, and Johnstown-Altoona and established Gateway Communications. They later acquired a station in West Virginia. He retired in 1983.

A native of Camden, Mr. Koehler was valedictorian of the Class of 1938 at Camden High School and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942.

During World War II, he served in the Army Air Forces in Europe and flew B17s on 33 missions over enemy targets. On one mission, he guided his crippled bomber back to England after an enemy fighter plane blasted a large hole in one wing, tore out two engines, ripped away the oxygen supply line and communications system, punctured fuel tanks, and wounded two crew members. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and an Air Medal with five Oak Leaf Clusters.

After his discharge, Mr. Koehler joined WFIL-AM as a special-events reporter. Over the years he held various positions at WFIL, and in 1947 he was promotion manager when WFIL began television programming. In 1952 he asked DJ Bob Horn to transfer his successful radio program, Bandstand, to television, and in 1956 he hired Dick Clark to replace Horn as Bandstand's host.

Mr. Koehler was honored in 1971 as Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia's Person of the Year, and in 1994 he and Larry Kane were inducted into its Hall of Fame.

He was active with professional associations and community organizations and served on the boards of Methodist Hospital in Philadelphia, the National United Methodist Communications Commission, First United Methodist Church of Westmont, and Pennington School. He was past president of the Rotary Club of Philadelphia and was a member of the Rotary Club of Woodstown, N.J.

He and his wife, Jane Caputi Koehler, were world travelers. They went on African safaris and visited the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, and Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas in Peru, their son Eric said.

Mr. Koehler and his wife met as summer counselors at a playground in South Jersey and married in a 10-minute ceremony in 1944, weeks before he was posted overseas. The couple lived in Westmont before building a home on a 95-acre farm in Pilesgrove in 1986. She died in 2006.

In addition to his son, Mr. Koehler is survived by a son, Gary; two grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

A funeral was July 10 at Hardingville Bible Church in Monroeville, N.J.

Memorial donations may be made to Woodstown Rotary Foundation, Box 431, Woodstown, N.J. 08098.