Just days after a country radio station in Oklahoma went viral for turning down a listener request to play Beyonce's "Texas Hold 'Em," the song got added to the station's rotation.
Beyonce dropped two new songs, "Texas Hold 'Em" and "16 Carriages," during the Super Bowl on Sunday (Feb, 11). Both preview the 32-time Grammy winner's forthcoming country album Act II (out March 29).
On Tuesday, a listener sent a request via email to hear "Texas Hold 'Em" on the radio station KYCK.
"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'," read the tweet that started the firestorm.
The email response came from Roger Harris, the general manager of Southern Central Oklahoma Radio Enterprises (S.C.O.R.E.), which is a group of stations that includes KYKC.
"We are a small market station. We're not in a position to break an artist or help it that much, so it has to chart a little bit higher for us to add it," Harris explained (as quoted by the Tennessean). "But we love Beyonce? here. We play her on our [other top 40 and adult hits stations] but we're not playing her on our country station yet because it just came out."
Regarding his email response, Harris added that "if somebody calls and requests the Rolling Stones on that station, we're going to say the same thing."
Due to hundreds of emails and phone calls from Beyonce fans (and following Tuesday's release of "Texas Hold 'Em" to country radio), the song made it onto the KYKC playlist.
"I've heard that [the songs are] leaning toward being country music, and I like that," Harris said (as quoted by the Tennesseean). "I think that's cool because we get tired of playing the same old beer drinking, truck driving... things like that. So, yeah, I'm really excited about somebody different doing a country music song."
