Jack Taylor was a long-time anchor on local news, both television and
radio, almost entirely in the Chicago area. He's best remembered from
WGN, both television and radio. Throughout much of the '70s, WGN tv
evening news was number 2. WLS "happy talk" was generally number 1. WLS
was the ABC O&O. WGN was independent.

Taylor was an old-fashioned news reader like a radio station host in the
1940s and 1950s or a C-SPAN host today. He completely suppressed his
personality and just gave the news.

In the late '70s, WGN changed its format to be more like WLS and Taylor
got bumped from the main newscast. He later became the morning host on
LOOP-FM, which was all "beautiful music" (essentially Muzak-style
instrumentals) that sold its signal to audio systems that played it in
the background in office buildings, so they have a very high
listenership beyond those listening on radio. It was an automated radio
station but he did the local hosting during morning drive. He had more
of a relaxed personality. I recall they had a couple of staffers writing
news. They didn't have reporters but you could sometimes get them to
write stories from press releases.

Later, the other independent tv station owned by Weigel, WCIU, used to
do a nonstop stock ticker during NYSE trading hours. Sometimes it was
superimposed over kids and daytime talk programming.

WCIU got financing to move the transmitter to Sears for a significantly
improved broadcast signal and wanted a better business program. Taylor
fit the bill and read business stories and did business interviews while
the stock ticker ran. They built a decent set for the show.

I want my newsreaders to be low key. Taylor was great. Also, the
business people he'd interview were often unprepared for television
appearances. Taylor put them at ease and the viewer got something out of
what the person being interviewed had to say.

Glad he had a long life.

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