Radio station broadcasts Beyonce's country song after discrimination allegations: NPR

Beyoncé and Jay-Z are seen in the audience during the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 4, 2024, in Los Angeles.

Chris Pizzello/Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

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Beyoncé and Jay-Z are seen in the audience during the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, February 4, 2024, in Los Angeles.

Chris Pizzello/Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP

An Oklahoma-based radio station said it is now airing Beyoncé's new single, “Texas Hold 'Em,” after her initial move not to play the song drew swift criticism from fans for what they see as narrow-mindedness.

One fan said he emailed KYKC requesting the song, and received the following response: “Hey – we don't play Beyoncé on KYKC because we're a country music station.”

He posted a screenshot of the response on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, late Tuesday morning. The post went viral, and “Beyhive,” the term used to describe Beyoncé's fans, flocked to make additional requests for “Texas Hold 'Em,” one of two country songs Beyoncé released on Super Bowl Sunday.

A few hours later, KYKC posted a photo of their show schedule, which showed the song at 2:28 p.m.

“Lots of calls coming in for Beyonce's Texas Hold 'Em,” the caption read. “He's coming in a few minutes.”

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KYKC responded to several comments under the post, saying that it issued its initial response because it had not yet been able to access the song. She also said that local listeners “don't really want us to play it.”

“I've heard R&B stations playing Adele, Justin Bieber, and Justin Timberlake songs with no problem and I haven't told them, 'Oh, we're not playing their music because of XYZ,'” one user said. “The same grace should be given when black musicians decide to pursue another type of music [i.e.] nation.”

The station responded: “I completely agree. We love Beyoncé. We didn't even have the song.”

KYKC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a more comprehensive statement to tn“We're a small market station,” said Roger Harris, general manager of the South Central Oklahoma Radio Corporation (SCORE). “We're not in a position to break an artist or help them too much, so we have to plan a little bit higher for us to add her. But we love Beyoncé here. We We play it on our website [other top 40 and adult hits stations] “But we haven’t played it on our country station yet because it just came out.”

Similar backlash followed in 2019 when Lil Nas Initially, the song charted on Billboard's Hot 100, Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. But the publication later removed the song from the country chart, claiming it did not contain enough country music elements. The decision was criticized by Country mainstay Billy Ray Cyrus, who later appeared on the remix.

As of 7:19 p.m. Tuesday, the station commented on Facebook that it had already played “Texas Hold 'Em” twice.