Ada radio goes viral

Feb. 17—A radio station in Ada, Oklahoma, was inundated with thousands of calls and emails from listeners, many alleging racism, after staff there said they would not play a new song by popular singer Beyonce.

Since the deluge began, station employees confirmed they have reversed course and now have the song in regular rotation — beginning the same day the dust-up began.

It started with a complaint from Justin McGowan, who works for The Shade Room, a Los Angeles-based media entity devoted to Black entertainment. McGowan told his audience of more than five million that on Tuesday, Feb. 13, he had called Ada's KYKC, a part of South Central Oklahoma Radio Enterprises, to request that Beyonce's "Texas Hold 'Em" be played. Station employees initially told McGowan they would not add the song to its play list because Beyonce isn't a country singer.

McGowan and others expressed the opinion that KYKC's refusal to play Beyonce's songs might be rooted in racism, and other media outlets — including the New York Times — were notified of the concerns. But KYKC Manager Roger Harris said that wasn't the case, and told listeners who commented on the station's Facebook page that he initially wasn't aware Beyonce had any country songs in her repertoire.

CNHI reached out to McGowan on The Shade Room's Facebook page, but he had not responded as of Friday afternoon, although he had updated his original story about the incident. A message was also left on The Shade Room's voice mail asking for comment.

Harris said told listeners Thursday that once SCORE had received the track for "Texas Hold 'Em," it had been played regularly on two of SCORE's five radio stations. SCORE is owned by the Chickasaw Nation, one of Oklahoma's "Five Tribes," a group that includes the Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole nations.

Several Ada residents who listen to KYKC have told The Ada News they don't believe the station's initial reaction was based on racism, and that the situation has gotten out of hand.

"I wish they would've done a bit of googling before answering so abruptly," Karah Thompson said.

Harris also told The Ada News certain factors are considered when putting songs into the rotation.

"Normally we wait to see if the songs are a little higher on the charts; we wait to see if the big stations are playing them," Harris said.

After KYKC's initial announcement that it wouldn't play the song, social media exploded, and SCORE received over 1,000 calls and over 2,000 emails, many from The Beyhive, a site for Beyonce fans.

"Four phone lines rang incessantly," Harris said. "We love Beyonce. We are now playing her on three of our stations. We want to play what the people want to hear. and if it's Beyonce's country song, we'll play it."

Thursday morning, Harris said the situation had calmed down, but some Ada residents told The Ada News — and said on social media — that the reaction was disconcerting.

"I don't think they were ready for the heat that the 'Beyhive' can bring," Don Clark said. "Those country stations did the same thing to Lil Nas X when he dropped 'Old Town Road'; they gave him hell until Billy Ray Cyrus jumped on the remix."

Harris said station employees are doing their best to answer emails. The station also released an official announcement: "We appreciate all the calls, texts and tweets over the past few days! We did not know that Beyoncé had released two country songs and thank you, our listeners, for letting us know Beyoncé's songs have long been prominent on our playlists for SCORE radio stations KADA and KXFC and her new country songs were added to our KYKC playlist hours after we started hearing from listeners and fans. We heard you and now you can hear Beyoncé on three of our five SCORE radio stations."

Chickasaw Nation Media Director Tony Choate said the tribe did not have anything more to add to KYKC's statement.

Another national online entertainment platform, TMZ, weighed in on the situation, saying "the outrage wasn't justified," and noting that KYKC had put the Beyonce tune in the rotation, possibly before the allegations of racism from McGowan appeared in the New York Times.

TMZ wrote: "But the Beyhive can fall back. Due in no small part to all the attention [an 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."

Ada resident Chad Estes had also seen TMZ's analysis of the situation.

"Reading through comments on national platforms like TMZ, who told the whole story about it being an honest mistake, and then people [are] still calling them racist," Estes said. "I'm curious what those people would say if they knew it was a tribal owned radio station."