WCCO-TV anchor Don Shelby and Meteorologist Paul Douglas sat down to talk about working together.
Douglas: I never knew what was going to come out of your mouth.
Shelby: I didn’t know what was going to come out of yours.
Douglas: And people would ask me on the streets, do you guys script that? Do you rehearse that?
Shelby: Yeah, do you even like each other?
Douglas: You can’t fake that, the chemistry is either there or it’s not.
Shelby: For me, I had to lower my standards a little bit.
Douglas: I was your special project.
Shelby: You and I worked at a time when the question of global climate change was preeminent. You’re one of the most courageous of all television weather people.
Douglas: You wanted to see the evidence, I’ll never forget that. I remember sitting down with you and saying ‘Here is the state-of-the-art of the science. All I’m doing is conveying the science.’
Shelby: At one point, you did a series of reports about what Minnesota would look like, I think in the year 2030. This was based on climate change models. You had to look 30 years older. I think you went to one of the finest makeup artists in the world to actually create that image.
Douglas: Well. I figured that if I needed to look 30 years older, who better to go to than Don Shelby.
Shelby: Do you miss being on television in a local broadcast commercial setting every day?
Douglas: Yes and no. I love having evenings free. On the big storm days, I still get that twitch, that nervous tick, at about 10:15. Those are the days I wish I was still here, absolutely. I miss the adrenaline of good storm, you know. Coming in, looking at the data, making your bet. Trying to make the best forecast you can, knowing you’re going to be wrong many times.
But I do miss hanging out with you. We had some great laughs. I tell people to this day, the truth, you were the older brother I never had.
Shelby: And never wanted.
Douglas: It’s true. Some people to this day, they don’t understand you the way I understand you. You always look for the good in people and try and pull that to the surface. You try to make people better. You did that here at ‘CCO, you’ve done it in your personal life. And that’s what I think you’ll be remembered for — not the awards, not the Emmys, not the plaudits. But the fact that you came in and you made this state better, and made your friends better, and you touched a lot of people and you made them better.
