Update: here are some details on the "working a little harder". For $f$ Schwartz with both $f$ and $\hat f$ vanishing on $[-R,R]$, one can write $\beta$ as the inner product of $f$ with $1_{(-\infty,0]}$ and $a$ as the inner product of $-1_{(-\infty,0]} x$. If $a$ vanishes, one can write $\alpha$ as the inner product of $f$ with a function $\phi$ whose Fourier transform is equal to a constant multiple of $1_{(-\infty,0]}(x) / x^2$ outside of $[-R,R]$ and is smooth in $[-R,R]$. So supposing for contradiction that there is a non-trivial constraint between $\alpha$ and $\beta$ when $a=0$, there must exist some non-trivial linear combination $g$ of $1_{(-\infty,0]}$, $1_{(-\infty,0]} x$, and $\phi$ such that all Schwartz functions $f$ with both $f$ and $\hat f$ vanishing on $[-R,R]$ are orthogonal to $g$. In particular, if $f \in L^2$ with $f$ and $\hat f$ vanishing on $[-2R,2R]$, and $\psi_1, \psi_2$ are suitable approximations to the identity (let's say real symmetric), then $(f \hat{\psi_1}) * \psi_2$ is orthogonal to $g$, or equivalently $f$ is orthogonal to $(g * \psi_2) \hat \psi_1$. Taking limits as $\psi_2$ approaches the Dirac delta, we conclude that $f$ is orthogonal to $g \hat \psi_1$. Taking duals, this means that we have a decomposition $g \hat \psi_1 = g_1 + \hat g_2$ where $g_1,g_2$ are $L^2$ function supported in $[-2R,2R]$. This implies in particular that $g \hat \psi_1$ extends to a holomorphic function on ${\bf C} \backslash [-2R,2R]$. Dividing by $\hat \psi_1$ (which one can choose to be non-zero at any given complex number), we conclude that $g$ extends to a holomorphic function on ${\bf C} \backslash [-2R,2R]$ (the extension is independent of $\psi_1$ by analytic continuation).
The function $x \phi''(x)$ has a test function for a Fourier transform with nonzero integral, so $\phi''(x)$ (as a distribution) is equal to a Schwartz function plus a non-zero multiple of $p.v. 1/x$, and extends to an entire function plus a non-zero multiple of $1/x$ away from the origin. This implies that $\phi$ is extends holomorphically to ${\bf C}$ with $[-2R,2R]$ and the negative imaginary axis (removed). On the other hand, by uniqueness of analytic continuation, any non-trivial multiple of $1_{(-\infty,0]}$ and $1_{(-\infty,0]} x$ cannot be extended to this region. These facts are only consistent if $g$ is a scalar multiple of $\phi$ alone. But $\phi$ has nontrivial monodromy around $[-2R,2R]$ (it behaves like the sum of an entire function and the multivalued function $z \log z$), while $g$ does not, giving the required a contradiction.