Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that KYKC refused to play Beyoncé’s new country songs after being requested by a fan, Jussatto Justin: “We do not play Beyonce on KYKC as we are a country music station.”.
Is Beyoncé going to get some love at the country radio format, now that she’s released a single, “Texas Hold ‘Em,” that openly embraces the genre? That’s a big question mark, as radio programmers, like many others in the music industry, are still reeling from the shock of her surprise release the night of the Super Bowl, with no apparent plan yet in place to immediately give the tune a promotional push at the format. But her move into country is certainly “topic A,” according to one programmer, even as radio pros take a pause on whether to play the music that is the talk of the nation.
Craig Stone, a disc jockey at the station, told Newsweek via phone on Tuesday afternoon that the emails in question were sent to a manager at the station who was unaware that Beyonce had released country music.
He chalked it up to miscommunication and nothing done intentionally to alienate any music fans.
“[The manager] was just completely unaware that [playing Beyonce on country radio] would be an option,” Stone said.
While KYKC has not yet played the two aforementioned songs, it plans to add them to the rotation. Stone said that their Top 40 station has already played the songs a few times and will continue to do so over time.
The idea of whether country radio will accept or ignore Beyoncé’s new music became a flashpoint on social media Tuesday when word spread about an Oklahoma station’s terse response to a fan requesting the new release. “I requested ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ at my local country radio station,” wrote a user on X (formerly Twitter), “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 tweet by user @jusatto tagged one of the many other fan accounts that act as a sort of Beyoncé defense league, and soon it went viral.
