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from Truman Taylor Sep 21, 2022
Make it at least 4 old men watching because I usually do check out the site and enjoy reading the posts very much. Best regards, Truman | |
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The Providence Journal November 13, 2004 Broadcaster Truman Taylor, whose career has encompassed stints as reporter, anchorman, news director and host of an interview show, will be inducted into the Golden Circle of the New England chapter of the National Television Academy. The Golden Circle honors TV professionals who have spent at least 50 years in the industry. Taylor started his career in Bangor, Maine, in 1954. In 1962, he joined what was then WTEV and would eventually become WLNE, Channel 6. At Channel 6, Taylor was the station's principal evening news anchor from 1964 to 1980, doing double duty when he was named news director in 1972. | |
| In 1984 Taylor became director of programming and public affairs. He retired from his administrative duties in 2001, but continues to moderate his Sunday morning interview show. | |
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from Jerry Gibbons, Dec 16, 2005 (from the Providence Journal)
After 40 years,
Truman Taylor Tapes Final Show for Channel 6 Friday, December 16, 2005 CHANNING GRAY Journal Arts Writer When someone hosts a TV show for 40 years, clearly he must be doing something right. But even remarkable endeavors, such as Truman Taylor's Sunday-morning public-affairs show on Channel 6, must come to an end. Last night Taylor, who has long been a fixture at Channel 6, taped his final Truman Taylor show, for airing this Sunday. It will feature a UMass Dartmouth professor discussing the impact that slot machines at Massachusetts racetracks would have in Rhode Island. While there will be a new show to pick up the slack come January, this marks the end of a refreshing break from the usual lineup of politicians and public servants. "It wasn't the usual cast of characters," Taylor said of his show. "It was primarily aimed at people who would be of interest to other people, like Matthew Lesko, the eccentric compiler of all things free from the federal government. "He came on and showed us the free tooth he got from Washington," Taylor said yesterday from his home in Brockton. One of Taylor's favorite guests was a California man who had marketed an inhalable form of Vitamin B. The man had been through town to visit his daughter at Brown and had caught Taylor's show. Would Taylor like to feature his unusual product? After checking the man out, Taylor did a show on the inhalable vitamin. "It wasn't quite like cocaine, where you used a straw. But he would inhale it from his fingertip. "I can't tell you how many people called asking where they would get some." Another guest, this one from Massachusetts, had trained monkeys to work with people who had quadriplegia. If the patient had an itch, the monkey, by means of an oral command, would scratch it. Taylor did have his share of politicians. George H.W. Bush appeared on the show when he was running for vice-president on the ticket with Ronald Reagan. Jimmy Carter was a guest. Perhaps the show's most memorable moment came in a 2001 exchange with Buddy Cianci, as Providence's then-mayor was batting away Taylor's questions about the Plunder Dome scandal. "People would like to know how the mayor is doing," Taylor persisted. Cianci interrupted: "How does a station with a 3-percent rating know what the people want?" Taylor yesterday didn't include that among his favorite memories. Instead, he offered complimentary words for Barbara Bush: "She was strong, intelligent and a good guest." TAYLOR STARTED in TV in Bangor, Maine, in 1954, when the business was mostly live. He sort of stumbled into his show on Channel 6. He'd signed on with the station when it first came on the air, New Year's Eve of 1962. For a while he was a street reporter, but moved up to evening anchor in 1964. The following year, the program director had lost a syndicated show and had a half-hour slot to fill at 7 on a Saturday evening. Would Taylor like to interview someone? Strange as it may sound today among the legions of handlers, Taylor called up Sen. Edward Kennedy and asked him if he wouldn't mind stopping by the station on his way to his summer house on the Cape. Kennedy agreed, and the show took off. Soon it was switched to Sunday and ran for years at noon, a coveted slot compared to the 7:30 a.m. it has been relegated to in its final year. For years, Taylor also did an 8 a.m. religious show called Confluence, along with three clergymen. "You'd be surprised the news junkies who'd watch it," he said. "Sen. [John O.] Pastore used to watch it while exercising on his stationary bike." Robert Whitcomb, editor of The Journal's editorial pages, joined the show in 1994 as a cohost. "He was endlessly charming, laid-back and unflappable," Whitcomb said yesterday. "And he was interested in many things, with a capacious memory. "When I would do the show," he said, "it was a real pleasure because of him." Whitcomb said it was astounding that Taylor has survived as long as he has in such a volatile business. He said it's because "he doesn't let things get to him." "In an age of television when people sit around yelling at each other," said Taylor's Channel 6 colleague Jim Hummel, "Truman has been a voice of reason. "He asks the tough questions but treats people fairly." Hummel will be succeeding Taylor Jan. 8 with ABC 6 News on the Record. Said a gracious Taylor, "I just hope it's a huge success. I hope they give him a good time slot. I hope they give it a chance." TAYLOR, A FATHER of five who put his age somewhere between 50 and death, has seen a lot of changes since he started in television. When he worked in Bangor in the 1950s, the station would use black-and-white stills taken from glass drums to illustrate its stories. The images would be glued to black posterboard and placed on an easel in front of a camera. If the cameraman was particularly creative, he might zoom in on Maine Gov. Edmund Muskie's pen, said Taylor. The news was read live back then; there was no videotape. Nor were there TelePrompTers. Stories were read from hard copy from the news desk. But in some ways, things have not changed. Back in the 1970s, during the energy crisis, then-Gov. John Chafee came on Taylor's show to talk about erecting windmills in Narragansett Bay to produce clean power. "The stories are the same," said Taylor, "it's just the bells and whistles that have changed." Taylor worked a host of jobs at Channel 6, including news director, public affairs director and -- until 2000, when he retired from administrative work -- director of programming. At that point, Taylor and the station signed a five-year contract for him to continue doing his program. There has been no effort to extend the contract. Even though Taylor taped his last show for Channel 6 last night, he is not ruling out future work in TV. If the time slot were right and the money good, he'd be willing to consider another show. But he is most excited about writing for newspapers. From time to time, Taylor contributes pithy observations to the op-ed page of The Journal. He would like to do more of them. He says people tend to register a stronger reaction to what he writes than what he says on TV. "I've enjoyed writing for The Journal every bit has much as I've enjoyed television," he said. "I try to stay away from the usual suspects, and write about things that interest me, and to write about them in amusing ways." | |
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Stories We Heard
from Dave Bernard, Cambridge August 29, 2009 I got to thinking about Mr. Taylor the other day, Googled the name, and to my delight found many entries. I was fortunate to have studied with him at Broadcast School. Without resorting to hyperbole, I can say he was a key person to give my life direction. I grew up in lower income with good parents, but had never really had a firm role model or inspiration to give me any real sense of what to do with my life at that point. While I never related to the hippie culture, Taylor's vogue and charm was a bit outdated. Yet I recognized in his demeanour the character that was genetic to me. I won't go into detail, except to say that I've now been in Broadcast for 40 years, and my niche is Arts & Public Policy. Having gone on the college, I still never met anyone of his professional stature. I haven't been able to get TV beyond Boston for many years, so haven't seen him, but the record I see online about his attitudes on news confirms that early kinship I intuited continued to evolve for us. I'm hoping I can get a home address for him in Brockton from Town Hall so I can express an appreciation. I was sorry to hear that I'd missed him at a meeting of a Media group to which we both belong. | |
Truman in 1999 From Truman's Wikipedia Page |
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More Stories We Heard The Mystery Voice In Joe I's File Cabinet Truman Honored | |
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