William A. Palmer; Pioneer in Audio Recording

William A. Palmer, 85, pioneer in audio recording that revolutionized “live” radio and television shows. After impressing Bing Crosby with their experiments and winning his backing, Palmer and his colleague John T. Mullin perfected an American version of the German “magnetophon” high-fidelity audio tape recorder in 1946. A year later, Crosby used their tape decks to record and edit his ABC network show, “Philco Radio Time,” the first broadcast with magnetic tape. Palmer and Mullin helped Ampex Corp. create the first commercial U.S. audio tape recorder, which was introduced in 1948. Their work was the basis for later developments in magnetic data recording for instrumentation and computers and for videotape. Palmer built a precursor of videotape, the Palmer Television Film Recorder, in the early 1950s. With his San Francisco-based W.A. Palmer Films Inc., Palmer was also the first to use 16-millimeter film for commercial productions, beginning with World War II training films. A native Californian, Palmer earned an engineering degree at Stanford. On June 6 in Menlo Park, Calif.