Oklahoma Radio Station Not Snubbing Beyoncé’s Country Music Despite Claim

A small-town Oklahoma radio station is under fire after a listener accused it of purposely barring Beyoncé‘s new country songs — but the whole thing has been totally warped, and in fact, it’s now resolved.

Here’s the deal … someone on X hopped online Tuesday, claiming KYKC — a local country station in Ada, OK — had told him they refused to play Bey’s 2 new country singles when he requested them, because they “do not play Beyoncé.”

There was a lot of context missing here, obviously, but the user ran with this as what he characterized as blatant racism … suggesting the station was purposely trying to box her out.

He wrote, “I requested Texas Hold ‘Em at my local country radio station (KYKC) and after requesting, i received an email from the radio station.” He posted a screenshot of the KYKC response, which notes they’re a country music station, and that’s why they wouldn’t play Beyoncé.

Again, on X, the user didn’t explain (or show proof of) the exact wording of his original request to KYKC, but he was calling for people to boycott the station — and, as you might expect, lots of Bey’s fans have their pitchforks out.

Welp, TMZ got to the bottom of this, and the station might be off the hook.

We contacted the X user, who told us his original request to KYKC was … “Please play the new song, ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ by Beyoncé.” In his eyes, he says it should’ve been obvious to the station he was requesting a country song, as it’s already been labeled as such on major streaming platforms.

We also reached out to KYKC, and a staffer told us the station hasn’t received Beyoncé’s new songs — “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages” — yet, and that’s why it’s not playing them. Another Oklahoma country station — KECO in Elk City — told us the same … they don’t have the tracks yet.

In terms of whether KYKC was even aware Beyoncé had dropped 2 country songs — with a country album on the way — the answer seems to be no.

We obtained further correspondence between the X user and KYKC that strongly suggests the station just was not aware of Bey’s new drops. Fact is, if its programmers weren’t on social media Sunday night, or watching the Super Bowl when Beyonce’s Verizon commercial aired … it makes sense they’d have no clue.

But, the Beyhive can fall back. Due in no small part to all the attention the X user’s post got today … KYKC tells TMZ it played “Texas Hold ‘Em” for the first time Tuesday afternoon. Problem solved.

As of right now, Bey’s new songs are not charting on Billboard — they were just released 2 days ago, so they won’t appear on Billboard’s charts until next week, at the earliest. However, “Texas Hold ‘Em” is doing very well on streaming charts, and we suspect KYKC listeners will be hearing it plenty in coming days.

There’s been a lot of discussion — online and IRL — about Beyoncé breaking into country, and, on its face, it feels like some have preconceived notions about the country music scene.