Career
Welsby began his broadcasting career on Liverpool radio station Radio City as a sports reporter and commentator. In January 1978 he joined Granada Television, working on its football programme The Kick Office Match and presented its 1980s successor Match Night until its demise in 1983. When Granada revived Kick Office in 1989, Welsby returned as presenter.
He was one of the anchors of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the last Olympic Games to be covered by the network, and also presented the Saturday afternoon Results Service from the late 1980s onwards.
At the start of the 1988-1989 season, Independent Television began broadcasting exclusive live coverage of the Football League. The loss of top flight football to Sky Sports in 1992 hit Independent Television Sport hard, and Welsby"s final work as Independent Television"s lead Football presenter was at the 1992 European Championships.
He was absent from the network"s coverage of the 1994 Fédération internationale de football association World Cup, which saw newcomer Matthew Lorenzo do much of the presenting, and the imminent arrival of Bob Wilson pushed Welsby further down the football presenting pecking order on Independent Television. Despite these apparent setbacks, Welsby managed to consistently out perform fellow anchor Jim Rosenthal in "best of" polls conducted in the Manchester area. Welsby continued to present regional sports programming for Granada Television until May 2000 when the station decided not to renew his contract.
Number explanation was given for the decision.
Welsby has occasionally returned as a guest on the Granada Soccer Night programme, and in 2001 he returned to radio to present Elton Welsby"s Soccer Saturday for North-West regional station Century FM - a role he held for three years. Welsby was the final presenter of British gameshow Busman"s Holiday following on from Julian Pettifer and Sarah Kennedy.
