Bill Taylor, TV news reporter and anchor who launched 'Positively Milwaukee,' dies at 79

Bill Taylor, the longtime Milwaukee news broadcaster who launched the "Positively Milwaukee" segment at WTMJ-TV (Channel 4), has died, according to his former station. He was 79.

Channel 4 published a statement from Taylor's family on May 9: "We are deeply saddened by the passing of our father, grandfather, husband and friend William A. Taylor, also known as Bill Taylor. Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the legacy of this Vietnam veteran, news giant, 29-year journalist, radio personality, historian, speaker, community activist and Pan-Africanist. After battling a range of health issues, he succumbed to pneumonia."

Taylor died the night of May 8, according to his longtime friend and colleague Clayborn Benson. Taylor was living in the Augusta, Georgia, area at the time of his death.

Channel 4 said Taylor's family asked for privacy and said that plans for a memorial of his life would be announced later.

Taylor grew up on Chicago's south side. After he was drafted and worked with the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network, he decided to go into broadcasting.

In 1970, he came to Milwaukee's WNOV-AM (860) as a DJ — spinning "Taylor made soul," according to a 1971 Milwaukee Journal story — and later program director. There, he quickly became a familiar voice in the community.

He joined Channel 4 as a reporter in 1972. While he covered a range of local subjects at the Milwaukee NBC affiliate, Taylor also went on reporting assignments overseas, from Israel to Somalia. In 1974, Taylor and Channel 4 photojournalist Clayborn Benson spent several weeks in Ghana for a four-part series on life in the western African nation, including talking with Black Americans who had moved to Ghana.

"It was a special moment in both of our lives," said Benson, who went on to found the Wisconsin Black Historical Society and Museum in Milwaukee. " … It was part of Ghana's back-to-Africa philosophy, encouraging African Americans to return home and we were part of that movement."

"That's why I'm at the museum now," said Benson, the museum's executive director. "We found our identity through our African brothers and sisters. Of course, much of what I found was through him. We spent a lot of time in the car talking about African thinking and Kwanzaa celebrations and what it means and from where it comes …

"I mean, that's why I am (who I am) today, because of rich conversations we had about our African roots."

Meanwhile, Taylor's steady on-camera presence quickly made him a fixture on Channel 4 newscasts, and a familiar face in the community.

"He brought a calmness to the conversation when it was in crisis, and people liked him," Benson recalled. "Whenever we went on stories, he was inclusive. He allowed people to bring their self into the picture."

Taylor became a fill-in news anchor and briefly led the station's 6:30 a.m. newscast before being named anchor of Channel 4's noon news in 1989.

Around that time, Taylor began a recurring news segment focusing on more upbeat stories in the community. The segment and its name, "Positively Milwaukee," came about by accident.

Searching for a signature line to end his midday newscast, Taylor came up with, "Do something positive today."

"I did it at first as a way to have something to endear the program to viewers," Taylor told Journal Sentinel columnist Eugene Kane in 2001. "Then the phones started ringing, people would call up to say, 'I took some kids out for ice cream,' or they volunteered at a local shelter.

"They would ask me, 'Is that positive?' There were so many calls like that, we decided to show some of the faces behind these suggestions."

So Taylor began seeking out stories about people doing good things in the community, and "Positively Milwaukee" was born. The recurring segment became a signature for Taylor and for Channel 4.

Taylor shifted to anchoring the station's weekend newscasts in 1991, and then in 1995 was moved to co-anchor Channel 4's then-new 11 a.m. weekday news program.

When he announced his retirement in 2001 at age 56, he had been in Milwaukee broadcasting for more than 30 years. As with the rest of his career, Taylor left on his own terms.

"When he decided he was going to quit, he quit," Benson remembered. "He didn't look back."

After leaving Channel 4, Taylor and his wife, Daphne, moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where their youngest daughter was starting college. They later moved to Georgia.

Taylor came back to Milwaukee a couple of few times after his retirement, and he was scheduled to be grand marshal at the city's Juneteenth parade in 2020 before it was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I was fortunate enough to work with Bill Taylor for a couple of years before he retired," Gregg Schraufnagel, station manager at Channel 4, said via email. "Bill cared deeply about Milwaukee and sharing the good things that happened in our city. He was a champion of unsung heroes. In addition to creating the 'Positively Milwaukee' segments and stories, he would often go out with a photojournalist and just ask people, 'What are you doing that's positive today?' It was an unexpected question for a lot of people and challenged them to focus on things that are right with the world. What a legacy that is."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bill Taylor, TV anchor who started 'Positively Milwaukee,' dies