Oklahoma Radio Station Faces Backlash After Refusing to Play Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em”

Beyonce’s move into country music with her upcoming Act II has provoked a wave of varied reactions throughout the country music scene. While some country musicians embrace Queen Bey, others quickly categorize her music as pop, resulting in a sharp divide among fans and industry insiders.

The incident occurred recently in Oklahoma, when a local country music station, KYKC 100.1 FM, owned by The Chickasaw Nation in Byng, refused to broadcast Beyonce’s new country single, “Texas Hold’Em.” The dispute started when a listener named Justin requested the song, only to receive an email from the station that plainly stated, “We do not play Beyonce on KYKC as we are a country music station. Thank you.”

Justin took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to publish the email, expressing his displeasure and accusing the station of bias. In a tweet addressed to the station’s program director, he wrote, “This station needs to be held accountable for their blatant racism and discrimination against Beyoncé. [KYKC 100.1 FM] This is absolutely ridiculous and racist. You guys should be ashamed. I grew up listening to your station. PLEASE EMAIL THE RADIO STATION TO REQUEST THE SONG. [email protected]”

KYKC’s refusal to play Beyonce’s new country singles has irritated the BeyHive. Many Beyhive members turned to social media to express their displeasure with the radio station’s decision not to play Beyoncé’s new songs.

Country radio stations rejecting to play Beyoncé just making the gp see their racism and helping us calling them out. Have seen so many tweets of people mad and calling them out. Beyoncé can never lose pic.twitter.com/ZIEoqaZybh

— Nalá | fan account (@BoricuaHive) February 13, 2024

y'all keep saying Beyonce shouldn't be on country stations because she's not a country artist when the genre of the songs she has drop is country meaning it should be on country radio if an artist is a rock singer and they decide to make a pop song,the song should be on pop radio pic.twitter.com/Dx2jJubMeF

— gh7ggff (@hfhhfyjjjf) February 13, 2024

What's this im seeing about Country Radio Stations refusing to play Beyoncé ??? IKYMFL pic.twitter.com/SqL5ZLDGgR

— ToBeyOrNotToBey (@LegendaryBHive) February 13, 2024

So all these white country bro artists can start rapping and take over country radio but Beyoncé making the most authentically country music in a decade can’t get played? Interesting! https://t.co/TIeIsMznwN

— Simon Curtis (@simoncurtis) February 13, 2024

Yeah I'm gonna add alot more country radio links today cause Beyoncé not being disrespected like this.

COUNTRY RADIO REQUEST LINES HIGHLIGHTED IN BLUE LET'S GO @BeyLegion @B7Album @ourhermitage @beyoncepress @BeyonceHiveNews @hiveradioo@StreamBey https://t.co/qi95H60Rrf https://t.co/XUHvMzmfFV

— 𐚁 𝙎𝙋𝘼𝘾𝙀𝘿 𝘾𝙊𝙒𝘽𝙊𝙔 / fan account (@glsellegang) February 13, 2024

Regardless of whether Country radio stations broadcast Beyoncé’s new tunes. She’s still projected to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 chart when her album is released on March 29th.