Joseph A. Flaherty

Joseph A. Flaherty was the Senior Vice President for Technology at CBS.

From 1953 to 1955, Flaherty served at the United States Army Signal Corps Photographic Center. As technical director and design engineer of the U.S. Army's first television station, Flaherty designed the studio wherein training films were made through kinescope.

Flaherty's career at CBS began in 1957 when he joined as a design engineer. Flaherty moved up in the ranks due to his innovations, and in 1977 he became Vice President for Technology.

He is the inventor and co-inventor of many television technologies, including the miniature color camera, off-line videotape editing, and co-inventor with Raymond D. Schneider of electronic news-gathering.

High definition television was one of Flaherty's chief areas of interest. He presented many papers on the subject. Flaherty served as Chairman of the Planning Subcommittee of the FCC's Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service that developed the ATSC HDTV standard.

In 1996, the Television Academy honored Flaherty with the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes a living individual whose contributions have significantly affected television technology and engineering.

Flaherty died August 7, 2018. He was 87.