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Bill Ayres

American talk radio host

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ4907977
Source-derived summary

Bill Ayres (January 14, 1941 – August 22, 2026) was an American talk radio host and executive director and co-founder of World Hunger Year.

Life and career

Ayres became a Catholic priest for the Roman Catholic diocese of Rockville Centre. Long Island, New York in 1966, but always had a fondness for radio broadcasting, starting at WGSM on Long Island. He began hosting and producing a weekly radio talk show on New York radio station WPLJ 95.5 FM in 1973. At first called On This Rock, it featured interviews with rock musicians, that focused on the spiritual meaning of the music to them, rather than its commercial aspects. Known on-air as Father Bill Ayres, hosting The Bill Ayres Show, he took thousands of calls and offered advice about personal, relational, spiritual, and social values, as well as playing music by artists whose outlook he thought was similar to his.

He served for ten years at St. James Church in Seaford, New York, until 1979. He resigned from the active priesthood in the early 1980s and focused on charitable work full-time. His motivation to leave the priesthood was to be able to marry his wife Jeannine.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Bill Ayres” as american talk radio host. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bill, Ayres and American.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1941, 2026, 1966, 1973—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1953-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Bill, Ayres and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Bill Ayres”, the useful work is to connect “american talk radio host” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4907977. VIAF identifies the subject as 51775090. The Library of Congress control number is n80041182. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 2026, 1966 and 1973.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Bill Ayres” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.