WCCO-TV Anchors Don Shelby and Colleen Needles talked about their years of anchoring together before Needles rejoined Shelby on the anchor desk.
Needles: It was such a pleasure to learn about the business from you. I couldn’t have learned it from a better person. And you made it so easy. And you made it a lot of fun.
Shelby: People don’t realize that you’re friends and that you’re sharing all kinds of inside information. And you’re talking about families. And your family was young and my family was growing older. That’s what a lot of our conversations were about.
Needles: I don’t know how you did it. You lived through your own children growing up and toddler years and then you had to live through all of my kids, potty training and what to do about this and that. You could have written a book because you were the Dr. Spock of the newsroom. We all came to you for advice.
Shelby: One of the serious sides of the job is that from time-to-time, you have to read the tough lines. You have to say something to people that they don’t necessarily want to hear. The country is at war or something terrible has happened. And we had those experiences. We had to tell some tough stories.
Needles: That’s the part of this business that I don’t miss because we had some extraordinary difficult stories to tell. I had a very difficult time as I know you did, when you went to Romania and reporting what you were seeing there, and that was tough. You couldn’t help but feel those stories. But there was a point where you had to stop feeling it so deeply so you could read it.
Needles: What’s on your mind as you, because you have done this for how many years?
Shelby: Forty-five.
Needles: Forty-five years. Have you thought ahead to that first night when you’re not walking into this building?
Shelby: I’m going to miss this building. I’m going to miss all of my friends who I work with every day. I’m going to miss being at the center of the action, going to where the action is. I’m going to have to learn a new way of living as an observer and not a voice.
Needles: People ask me what do you miss most, and I say I miss Don. I miss the camaraderie. And we gave each other grief, a lot. But it was great. It was really wonderful. And I hope you have the time of your life.
