WCCO-TV anchors Don Shelby and Pat Miles sat down to talk about the time when they worked together, starting in 1978.
Miles: Well, we lived through a lot of history.
Shelby: Well, we did. Do you remember the first time we met?
Miles: Yes, you were waiting for me at the airport because your flight got in before my flight.
Shelby: And I didn’t know you from Adam.
Miles: And I didn’t know you either. You were coming from Houston and I was coming from Denver. And we were going to audition for the weekend anchor job. They needed younger demographics (laughing).
I think we were extremely eager, extremely idealistic, extremely naive and extremely enthusiastic. And I just remember wanting to do such a good job back then.
We really had a great run I think, Don. We really were, I think, in the business at a time where we could actually do the stories we wanted to do. I mean, I could go to Africa. You could do the I-TEAM.
It was a pretty special time in our business and I don’t think any of us knew it because everybody was making money back then.
Do you remember Project Quit? We were both compulsive smokers at the time. And we quit.
Shelby: What would you say was the best part of being at WCCO?
Miles: Being held to a very high standard and working very hard to be worthy of that.
Shelby: And it made you better.
Miles: It made me much better.
Well, Dave Moore used to always talk about the good ol’ days. Remember that? And I remember you and I used to roll our eyes. ‘Oh my gosh, here he goes again.’ And here we are, Don, talking about the good ol’ days. That’s pretty scary. But they were good ol’ days, they truly good ol’ days.
