Meet Shane

What defines Texas?

A wide open, beautiful and enchanted land chockfull of amazing people and places. Cities, big and small – each with their own culture and way of life. Add these things together to create the incredible assemblage of personalities that make Texas what it is today.

With stories of the Old West to modern marvels, Texas is loaded with lore and more. Our goal is to feature the stops, gather the tales, and meet the people quintessential to our Texas heritage. And, of course, share it all with you.

This is The Texas Bucket List.

The whole idea of creating a list of people, places, food, and music that all Texans need to experience came about in 2008 when as young sports reporter, I moved from Austin to Bryan/College Station to further my career in broadcast journalism.

Really it was for a girl. After spending time at stations in Abilene, Corpus Christi, and Austin, moving to the Brazos Valley was a given, considering my fiancé was being promoted to the main anchor position at the CBS affiliate. (I’m now married to that beautiful former news girl and together we have two amazing kids.)

But when I arrived at KBTX, General Manager Mike Wright and News Director Mike George had other ideas. “You’re not a bad sports reporter Shane but you’re a much better feature reporter, we’d like you to take on more stories like that,” said Wright. “And we’d like you to come up with a summer series for July sweeps, something about our area,” said George.

I was a little taken back but like any young journalist will tell you, when given a task you take it head on and try your hardest to make it the best television anyone has seen.

After brainstorming with my wife, I decided I’d try to stumble my way along and follow in the footsteps of the great storytellers our state has seen. Inspired by reporters like Ray Miller and his expansive knowledge of Texas history on The Eyes of Texas, to the story telling of Ron Stone and Charles Kuralt, these newsmen always awed me.

But my biggest inspiration was, of course, Bob Phillips, the George Strait of Texas TV, at least in my humble opinion.

So I started The Brazos Valley Bucket List, a monthly series dedicated to everything there is to see, do, and experience in The Brazos Valley. After just the first month on air, people would continually come up to me and compare my storytelling to Mr. Phillips and I was extremely honored. “You need to take your series across Texas,” they’d tell me. Well after a few years, I decided: Why not?

With blessings from Mike Wright and Mike George, I pursued my dream and in the Fall of 2013 The Texas Bucket List premiered on 12 stations, most notably on KPRC Channel 2 in Houston, the former home of The Eyes of Texas. That fact still chokes me up every time I think about it.

The Texas Bucket List has been awarded four Lone Star Emmy Awards and can be seen on all television affiliates in Texas, KSLA in Shreveport, WBKO in Bowling Green, WVLT in Knoxville, and nationally on RFD-TV.

So thank you for watching, enjoy the show, and God Bless Texas.

Shane has been recognized with numerous television broadcast excellence awards including a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award, the Lone Star Emmy Award, the Barbara Jordan Media Award, multiple Texas Association of Press Broadcasters awards, and several Telly Awards. He’s a native of Round Rock, Texas and attended The University of Houston.