Out-of-state groups slam ‘Satanic’ music at Seton Hall station

SOUTH ORANGE — Seton Hall University's longtime student-run radio station has come under a new round of fire by an out-of-state Catholic organization for the content of its heavy metal music programming.

Artists and songs featured by WSOU-FM have been slammed before by The Lepanto Institute, which is located in Virginia.

The organization's president, Michael Hichborn, posted a YouTube video in September, that said music featured on the station at the private, Catholic university was “openly satanic” and promoted the “slaughter of Christians.”

"WSOU's music might sound scary and that the very nature of hard rock music might strike some as anti-religious. In fact, all songs on WSOU are screened for content to ensure that lyrics do not undermine the mission and values of Seton Hall University or the Catholic Church," according to the student-run organization's website, on a page titled "Principles that guide WSOU programming."

The criticism also has been leveled by another out-of-state organization, the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, led by John Horvat, according to The New York Post.

That group based in York County, Pennsylvania, is self-described as "an organization of lay Catholic Americans concerned about the moral crisis shaking the remnants of Christian civilization."

At least one state resident has been involved in demonstrating against heavy metal content on the student-run station, which has been on-air for more than 70-years.

“We have stood praying the rosary outside the radio station to stop this diabolical evil, and literally have had students yell, ‘Hail Satan!’ at us,” Maria Woltornist, of Glen Gardner, said as quoted by the Post.