An Oklahoma-based country radio station was accused of racism after it denied a request to play Beyoncé’s new single, “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
The 42-year-old recording artist best known for R&B and pop announced the release of two country singles and an upcoming album during Sunday’s Super Bowl game. Followers believe the new album, set to be released in late March, will have heavy country influences.
This prompted one social media user to request the newly released country single on Oklahoma’s 100.1 KYKC. The X account said it got a response saying Beyoncé isn’t played on the station’s country format. He posted about the station’s denial on X, which caused the exchange to go viral and the radio station to reverse course after realizing Beyoncé had released country songs.
“I requested Texas Hold ‘Em at my local country radio station (KYKC) and after requesting I received an email from the radio station stating “We do not play Beyoncé on KYKC as we are a country music station,” the fan shared, tagging a Beyoncé fan group in the post.
This station needs to be held accountable for their blatant racism and discrimination against Beyoncé.
— JUSTIN 🫧 (@jussatto) February 13, 2024
“This station needs to be held accountable for their blatant racism and discrimination against Beyoncé,” a follow-up tweet said.
“This is absolutely ridiculous and racist. You guys should be ashamed. I grew up listening to your station,” the X account continued, adding a plea for listeners to start flooding the station with requests for the song.
When the post racked up millions of impressions in just a few hours, KYKC responded on its X account, writing, “’Lots of calls coming in for Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em. It’s coming up in minutes.” The post included an image of the song in the upcoming playlist.
A rep for KYKC’s owner (South Central Oklahoma Radio Enterprises), which owns multiple stations of different formats, told The Daily Mail that its country station didn’t realize the “Lemonade” singer had released a country song, and further stated it didn’t have the track when the social media user first requested it.
“Then when we began getting requests for it, we literally didn’t have it. No label or distributor could get it to us. So we literally couldn’t play it. Finally after many calls and emails we finally got the song and added it to not only our country station, KYKC, but it’s also on our Top 40 station KXFC, and our classic hits station, KADA-FM.”
“We have been playing Beyonce’ for 20 years so we are fans,” the statement added.
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The rep also clarified that the situation had nothing to do with racism.
“First, we are owned by a minority owned company, so there’s that. Secondly, we play music if it’s good. We don’t care who it is or what they look like. Thirdly, we embraced Beyonce’ when she hit the scene decades ago. She has always been a core artist for us, especially on two of our stations.”
“We honestly didn’t know she had dropped a country song, plus no distributor sent it to us. As soon as we finally got it, we added it to our playlist,” the statement concluded.