Karl-Heinz Koepcke; German Television News Anchorman

Karl-Heinz Koepcke, 68, who brought television news into the living rooms of millions of Germans for more than 28 years. He began in broadcasting with Radio Bremen immediately after being released as a prisoner of war in 1946. On March 2, 1959, Koepcke started as the ARD network’s national news anchor and kept the job until he retired on Sept. 10, 1987. During nearly three decades of delivering the daily 8 p.m. news, Koepcke became known for his calm, in-depth reporting. That marked a clean break with the World War II era, when German radio news was barked out in the tones of an angry field marshal. Koepcke’s popular demeanor made him the heartthrob of widows who had lost their husbands in the war. On Saturday of cancer in Hamburg.