Donald Gilbert "Don" Shelby (born May 27, 1947 in Muncie, Indiana)[1] is a former American news anchor on WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is regarded as an experienced investigative journalist, as his work has earned two Peabody awards and an Emmy Award.
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Shelby joined WCCO-TV in 1978 as a news reporter. After continued work as a reporter, Shelby began assuming anchor responsibilities in greater capacity, eventually assuming the primary anchor chair from Dave Moore. Shelby was the chief architect behind WCCO's "I-Team" segment, which spotlighted current issues, both local and on a larger world scale, with rigorous investigative journalism. After suffering a mild stroke in early 2004, Shelby returned to news reading duties by the end of that year. Shelby retired from television after his final WCCO-TV newscast on November 22, 2010. [2]
In February 2006, Shelby began hosting a series of video essay segments entitled "In The Know" (later renamed "Good To Know"), during the station's 10:00 newscast. These segments sometimes touched on political, religious and other topics, usually with the same pointed journalistic style of Shelby's earlier "I-Team" efforts.
In recent years, Shelby undertook a dual responsibility of hosting an afternoon radio show on WCCO (AM) which ended at 6:00, immediately after which he anchored the TV newscast (also simulcast on radio). In June 2009, Monday Night Football sideline reporter Michele Tafoya took over the radio show, which Shelby still occasionally contributes to as a guest.[3] Shelby's final radio show took place on December 11, 2009.
Known to many in the Minnesota community as a "jack-of-all-trades," Shelby has many hobbies, including, among other things, beekeeping. Shelby has been an enthusiastic fan of women's basketball.
His first book, The Season Never Ends: Wins, Losses, and the Wisdom of the Game (Bascom Hill Publishing), was published on August 30th, 2011. It features a foreword by University of Minnesota men's basketball head coach Tubby Smith and endorsements from NBA analyst Ahmad Rashad and author Will Weaver.
His eldest daughter, Ashley Shelby, is the author of Red River Rising: The Anatomy of a Flood and the Survival of an American City.
Shelby, in his time on television, popularized the Pratt necktie knot, to the extent that it is sometimes referred to as the "Shelby Knot" or "Pratt-Shelby."
Shelby has played an active role in the preservation and maintenance of the Mississippi River. Through his WCCO-TV segment entitled "Project Energy", Shelby has investigated energy conservation, renewable energy,and alternative fuels. [4]