Oklahoma radio station now playing Beyoncé’s new country song after outcry

A rustic radio station in Oklahoma that obtained criticism earlier this week for not enjoying Beyoncé’s new track “Texas Maintain ‘Em” is now enjoying the tune.  

KYKC-FM added the track to its nation playlist, Roger Harris, a basic supervisor for South Central Oklahoma Radio Enterprises, which oversees KYKC, advised CBS Information in an e mail Wednesday. Harris stated it was additionally included in playlists of two different stations it oversees, KCFC-FM and KADA-FM. 

The transfer comes after a fan requested “Texas Hold ‘Em” — a rustic track about Beyoncé’s house state of Texas — solely to have the request shut down by the station. 

The fan posted SCORE’s reply to social media, which learn that “We don’t play Beyoncé on KYKC as we’re a rustic music station.” 

The response generated outcry and accusations of racism on-line from the Beyhive — Beyoncé’s ardent fanbase. 

Harris advised CBS Information that the station initially did not know Beyoncé had launched two nation music songs — “Texas Maintain ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” — following Tremendous Bowl LVIII, and defined that the response to the fan was a “customary reply” since KYKC do not play her music — however does on to 2 of its others. As well as, Harris stated KYKC did not “even have the track.” 

“As a result of we’re a small station, we do not get serviced by the massive labels like larger stations do,” he added. 

After emails, calls and extra requests flooded the station in regards to the track, Harris stated they made an effort to trace it down, listened to it, and agreed that it sounded “nation.” The station even wrote a post about it on social media. 

“We’ve got nothing towards Beyonce…and we want her the most effective in her foray into nation music,” Harris advised CBS Information, including that she’s an “icon.” 

“We really want that artists WOULDN’T get boxed in to sure genres or codecs,” Harris stated. “If it is good music, it is good music.” 

The KYKC incident echoed an analogous sentiment over whether or not race was a think about figuring out genres when Lil Nas X’s track “Previous City Street” was eliminated from the Billboard Sizzling Nation Chart in early 2019. Billboard justified the choice then by claiming the track “doesn’t embrace sufficient parts of at this time’s nation music.” 

Nonetheless, it later returned to the charts after Lil Nas X paired up with Billy Ray Cyrus for a remix of “Previous City Street.”

It isn’t the primary time Beyoncé has been thrown into an issue associated to nation music. In the course of the fiftieth anniversary of the Nation Music Awards in 2016, she carried out her track “Daddy’s Classes” with The Chicks, which wasn’t obtained nicely by some nation music followers.