WFAA Investigative Reporter Byron Harris is hanging it up and casting a line.

Harris is signing off from WFAA on Oct. 9th. Why that day? It's his 69th birthday.

Harris has been at the Dallas station for 40 years and he plans to "go flying-fishing in Slovenia with my wife (Linda), who’s my fishing buddy,” as soon as he retires Harris said to Ed Bark. 

“Byron’s body of work is so extensive that it is nearly impossible to adequately portray the impact and changes his reporting has produced,” said WFAA GM Mike Devlin.

Harris says that he still doesn't get social media.

The television news business now requires reporters to tailor their stories for three separate “platforms” -- TV, the Internet and “social media” (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

“It’s kind of like re-writing it in French,” Harris said of retooling a TV story for the Internet. “Television relies on pictures and the Internet is like writing a print article. You have to re-think the whole thing in many cases. But it doesn’t do any good to wish for the good old days. There are never any good old days in anything. It’s only today and tomorrow. Is it a pain in the neck to have to do an Internet version? Yes, but ultimately more people read the print story than look at the TV story. You have a great reach on the Internet. But social media is frankly still mystifying to me.”

It mystifies a lot of TV people Byron, so you are not alone.