Truman Taylor

Who is Truman Taylor?

Truman Taylor has been a popular television personality in southeastern New England for more than four decades. Beginning as a general assignment reporter, he was the principal evening news anchor on WLNE-TV, Providence, RI from 1964 through 1980. He reported through the turbulent 1960s and 70s on the major stories of those decades; the assassination of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, Jr.; and the demonstrations and street disturbances that brought shootings and fires to some of southeastern New England's core cities. And the Vietnam War protests that roiled the campuses of area colleges.

Named Director of Programming for the station in the late 1980s he retired from his administrative duties at the station in January 2001. However, he continued, until December 2005, to moderate the Sunday interview program, "Truman Taylor," that he had begun in 1963. Among the guests on the program have been 2 U.S. Presidents, three future presidents and scores of newsmakers from both the local and national scene. The program has received four Emmy nominations including one for "Jobathon."

In the economically hard hit southeastern New England of the 1980s, "Jobathon," aired live in prime time from four cities in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and put more than 400 unemployed people back to work. "Jobathon" won him a personal commendation and an invitation to the White House from President Ronald Reagan.