MILWAUKEE (AP) - Longtime Milwaukee television TV reporter and anchor Mike Anderson, who covered racial inequality, political upheaval and inner-city violence during his 36-year tenure at WISN, died Tuesday at age 67, the station said.
Anderson was not feeling well Monday and went to the hospital that night, WISN President and General Manager Jan Wade said. He died suddenly Tuesday morning, with his family with him. The TV station did not provide a cause of death.
In a statement, Wade said Anderson, who retired from ABC affiliate WISN in 2017, was “a wonderful person, whose smile could light up a room,” and was “an award-winning journalist who loved to tell stories (as all good reporters do), and he was beloved by all who met him.”
“The community has lost an important voice, and we’ve all lost a special man who will long be remembered for his modesty, his journalistic excellence and, of course, his kindness. Mike Anderson was a total class act,” Wade said.
Anderson joined WISN in 1981 from Seattle, where he worked as a news anchor and reporter at KIRO-TV, and covered many news events, including the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which struck his hometown of New Orleans.
“Mike Anderson was a transformative figure in the history of television news in Milwaukee,” WISN news director Ben Hart said. “In his storied career, he broke class and color barriers and set the tone for what professionalism looks like.”
Anderson also received many awards, including for his work on the documentaries “Children in the Line of Fire” and “Solutions to Violence.” He interviewed four U.S. presidents and celebrities such as B.B. King and Oprah Winfrey.
Anderson was a member of the Wisconsin Black Media Association and was involved with the Milwaukee Black Excellence Awards for more than a decade, emceeing the annual awards ceremony.
Survivors include his wife and three children. Funeral arrangements were pending.
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