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He changed channels

Potential high-end television customers relax as they watch a flat panel plasma model at the Best Buy Store last month in Maple Grove, Minn. Retailers, including Best Buy, expect sales for flat panel televisions to double from last year. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
By D.F. Oliveria daveo@spokesman.com(509) 319-0354
Potential high-end television customers relax as they watch a flat panel plasma model at the Best Buy Store last month in Maple Grove, Minn. Retailers, including Best Buy, expect sales for flat panel televisions to double from last year. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Potential high-end television customers relax as they watch a flat panel plasma model at the Best Buy Store last month in Maple Grove, Minn. Retailers, including Best Buy, expect sales for flat panel televisions to double from last year. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

CHICAGO (AP) — A spokesman for Zenith Electronics says Eugene Polley, the inventor of the first wireless TV remote control, has died.

John Taylor says the former Zenith engineer died of natural causes Sunday at a suburban Chicago hospital. He was 96.

Couch potatoes everywhere have Polley to thank for hours of feet-up, channel surfing. His invention began as a luxury, but has become a necessity in an era of hundreds of TV channels and home theaters. Just ask anyone who’s lost a remote. Full story.

True story: It takes 3 remotes to operate our TV. I can’t watch TV unless my husband or kids are home to work them. Would you be lost without your TV remote?

* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "Huckleberries Online." Read all stories from this blog