The controversial “Aryan Nations Hour” on radio station KZZI-AM near Salt Lake City has been cancelled by its host, Dwight McCarthy, presumably because the station has lost most of its advertisers.
Station manager John Hinton told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Wednesday that McCarthy discontinued the weekly call-in program after two shows due to sabotage at the station in West Jordan, Utah, including the destruction of a satellite dish. Hinton also cited death threats against his family and the station’s advertisers.
But Hinton also acknowledged Wednesday that the station had lost almost all of its advertisers since the “Aryan Nations” show aired Dec. 5. The show espoused the views of the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group that advocates turning the Pacific Northwest into an all-white bastion.
McCarthy, 37, reportedly blamed the “liberal-Marxist-homosexual Zionist coalition” for his problems at the station. He also claimed to have received death threats from the Jewish Defense League.
Last week, Utah Gov. Norman Bangerter and Salt Lake City Mayor Palmer DePaulis condemned the Aryan Nations for its recruitment efforts in Utah and for broadcasting its message.
On Dec. 5, the newly formed Utahans Against Aryan Nations held a rally against the show in a nearby park.
Hinton said McCarthy might reconsider broadcasting at a later date, and that McCarthy had a constitutional right to but air time at the station.
McCarthy prepaid KZZI $5,200 for a year’s programming for “Aryan Nations Hour.” He had begun broadcasting at the station in July with his “Counter-Marxist Hour.”
McCarthy has said he prefers the appellation “white separatist” to “white supremacist,” and broadcast his arguments for separating the races into “homelands.”
The Jewish population in the Salt Lake City area is 2,400.
Rick Trank of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, which has been monitoring developments at the station, noted that the station had lost advertisers since first broadcasting the show, and was drawing the ire of listeners.
At the Wiesenthal Center’s request, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) has contacted the Federal Communications Commission, which is examining the matter. A month ago, the FCC said it saw no “clear and present danger” from the “Aryan Nations Hour.”
“It’s our position that this KZZI incident could repeat itself in other cities unless some corrective action is taken by the FCC,” Trank said.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
