Margot Adler’s Old Radio Station Shuts Down

Margot Adler, 1946–2014

Well-known Pagan writer Margot Adler worked for National Public Radio, but she also had a presence at  Pacifica’s WBAI in New York City, where she hosted a talk show called “Hour of the Wolf.”

The show continued after her death, but no more: WBAI has shut down. Apparently the “listener-supported” thing no longer worked for them. And their website links to articles about Margot no longer work either.

In the ’60s and ’70s, the station had been a platform for the counterculture, broadcasting everything from Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” to George Carlin’s “Filthy Words.”

More recently, it hit financial turbulence, laying off nearly two-thirds of its staff in August 2013. In November of that year, musicians including Pete Seeger staged a benefit concert for WBAI at the Cutting Room.

In March 2014, after falling $1.8 million behind on rent in the Empire State Building, the station received an emergency loan to prevent the building’s holding company from seizing its assets. It then relocated to 4 Times Square.

Pacifica said Monday it would relaunch WBAI once it’s able to create “a sustainable financial structure for the station.” Until then, it said WBAI’s signal would carry “a network source called Pacifica Across America.”

2 thoughts on “Margot Adler’s Old Radio Station Shuts Down

  1. Pitch313

    The SF Bay Area’s Pacifica radio station KPFA played an important part in the development of my overall Pagan world view while I was growing up. The station offered an alternative and counter-to-mainstream outlook, plus some access to cultures other than Western. Alan Watts, Beat poets, communists, anarchists, progressives, music from around the world, and a reliable endorsement of we’re all humans on this earth.

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