Jane Slater leaves D-FW TV/radio, signs on with Austin-based, ESPN-owned Longhorn network; updates on Fox4's Max Morgan and former Fox4 meteorologist Ron Jackson

By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
CBS11 sports reporter/anchor Jane Slater has left the D-FW station and on Monday, Sept. 22nd is joining the ESPN-owned Longhorn Network as a studio host and reporter.

Slater, who’s relocating to Austin, will helm among other duties.

“This really is a dream come true,” Slater says in a publicity release. “The idea of returning to Austin and working for Longhorn Network and ESPN -- it doesn’t get any better than that.”

Slater tried hard to make her mark in D-FW in a variety of roles. She was a freelance news reporter at CBS11 before joining a pre-Gannett8 as a traffic reporter on the station’s 5 and 6 p.,m. weekday newscasts. Slater then went to 105.3 FM radio (THE FAN) to team with Mark Elfenbein on the weekday Elf and Slater show. When it was canceled, she was a fill-in host of TXA21’s prime-time The Fan before it also was dropped. TXA21 is CBS11’s sister station. Slater also has worked at KRLD radio (1080 AM). She’s a University of Texas at Austin graduate and was raised in Rockwall.

Slater joins former NBC5 sports reporter/anchor Matt Barrie as part of the ESPN sports empire. Both are rising young talents, with Barrie getting increasing exposure on a variety of ESPN platforms since leaving Fort Worth-based NBC5 in March 2013. He spent five years at the station.

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Veteran weekend Fox4 sports anchor/weekday reporter Max Morgan remains hospitalized with congestive heart failure. He’s been with the station for 21 years and is best known for his signature tag line “Let’s Talk Sports.” Morgan’s wife, Maria, is quoted in a myfoxdfw.com story as saying, “Tell everyone to just keep praying, because it works.”

Morgan was hospitalized last Wednesday.

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Former longtime Fox4 meteorologist Ron Jackson, who abruptly announced his retirement from the station earlier this year, was seriously injured in a single vehicle crash Friday night, the station’s website reports.

Cedar Hill police say he was riding a scooter near the intersection of Highway 67 and Kingswood Drive in Cedar Hill when he apparently lost control of his vehicle. He was not wearing a helmet and was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, myfoxdfw reports.

Jackson signed off on Feb. 9th of this year after 32 years with Fox4. He told viewers that knee surgery and the previous summer’s kidney stone removal had persuaded him that “time is a little bit short. I’d better retire at an early age of 57 years.”

But in May of this year, Jackson joined KRLD-AM as a part-time meteorologist.

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