Full Name Timothy Kropf | Name Tim Taylor Role Newscaster | |
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Occupation television news anchor, Similar Dick Goddard, Neil Zurcher, Leon Bibb | ||
Tim Taylor (born Timothy Kropf on May 19, 1940 in Cleveland, Ohio) is a retired American newscaster/investigative reporter and news anchor for FOX affiliate WJW-TV 8 in Cleveland, Ohio. Taylor served as the chief news anchor of WJW from 1977-2005, after beginning his television career with WEWS-TV, initially as the city’s first consumer ombudsman “Action Reporter” and then as weekend news anchor.
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Early life
Taylor was born on the east side of Cleveland in the Buckeye neighborhood, moving at a young age to suburban Bedford, Ohio. Taylor suffered from bronchial asthma as a youngster, though he overcame it and graduated from Bedford High School in 1958, and going to college at Kent State University.
Broadcast career
In 1964, Kropf took the name of Tim Taylor, and began his broadcast career. The first ten years of Taylor's career were spent in radio, including seven years as news director of WHK AM 1420. It was there that Taylor earned recognition for his live coverage of such historic news events as the second Sam Shepard trial, the Hough Riots, the Glenville shootout, complete live coverage of the aborted Apollo 13 mission and the Kent State shootings.
In 1974, Taylor moved to television, first joining WEWS channel 5 as a consumer reporter/weekend anchor. He moved to WJW three years later, and in 1979 became a co-anchor on the weeknight newscasts, a post he held until his retirement in December 2005.
While at WJW, Taylor did live reports from Three Mile Island, interviewed four presidents, and even traveled to Japan to cover the then growing Japanese auto industry.
Personal life and interests
An avid golfer and outdoorsman, Tim is now retired, and he and his wife Cathy enjoy sharing their love of animals and nature with their six adult children and four grandchildren in suburban Cleveland.