Report: Country Radio Is Bullish on Beyoncé

Is country radio an easy, inevitable home for Beyoncé’s new single, “Texas Hold ‘Em”? That’s what some top radio executives are telling Variety, contrary to some early speculation about how a crossover record from the superstar might fare.

Although these execs point out that it will be up to listeners to ultimately decide, they’re saying that they see no reason why a song that’s in the pocket musically from one of the world’s biggest superstars should be cause for a showdown instead of hoedown.

“Why wouldn’t we play this? This is a gift,” says Brian Philips, chief content officer at Cumulus Media, who oversaw a Zoom call Wednesday with programmers at the chain’s major country stations, during which he said everyone spoke enthusiastically about “Texas.”

“It was like, ‘How can we not give this a try?’ This adds a completely unforeseen, unimagined new angle to country radio. We’ll get calls, we’ll get response, and some of the old school (listeners) will probably reject it and then everybody else will love it, and that’ll be the outcome. We have 55 major country stations and it’s very hard to get them to agree on anything. But everybody at country wants to play it. We don’t have guys who are like, ‘It doesn’t fit our core sound.’ We have people who want to be part of the story and they’re all gonna do the same thing: play it and talk it up and get all the negative and all the positive out of the audience and see what the reaction is. It sounds like a really simple, catchy, hit pop-country song to me.”

iHeartMedia is on board too. In a statement provided to Variety, Tom Poleman, the chain’s chief programming officer & president, says, “Beyoncé is an innovator who continues to push the creative boundaries in music. Many of our country and Top 40 programmers began playing the new single earlier this week, and now that it’s officially rolled out, we’re excited to share her new song with our listeners across the country, including the entire iHeartCountry platform.”

Audacy’s Tim Roberts, VP of programming and country format captain, also provided a statement, saying, “We think it’s a good record, and country is so popular right now, it’s great that she wants to be here. Just like we do with any song on our playlist, now the listeners will decide.”

SiriusXM’s country stations have been on top of it. Says Johnny Chiang, SiriusXM Pandora’s senior director of country programming, “When I first heard that there was a possibility of Beyoncé dropping a country song, a real country song, I was stoked. She’s one of four or five artists worldwide that, when she speaks, you stop and listen. So on Sunday night during the Super Bowl, I was sitting there on my laptop on our backend system and kept hitting refresh, waiting for the song to drop. I immediately added to added the song to multiple Pandora country stations, and then we also played it on ‘The Highway’ for the first time Sunday night. Then the next morning, the morning show played it, and we immediately made it a full add on ‘The Highway,’ so it’s in full rotation.”

Chiang sees only upside in a Beyoncé/country marriage. “First of all, it’s a good song, and a legit modern country song. And she’s iconic, so it’s a no brainer,” says the SiriusXM exec, who used to program a top country station in Beyoncé’s native Houston. “I can’t speak for the terrestrial country PDs, and I can imagine there will probably be some trepidation. But I think this is nothing but good for our format. Whether it is terrestrial or satellite or on the DSPs, the core country audience is still that 35-to-45-year-old soccer mom, and they don’t just listen to country, they listen to pop, where Beyoncé has a huge impact. So why wouldn’t it work?”

Whether fans of these stations are truly welcoming of a new wrinkle or want that airtime devoted to still more spins for Kane Brown, Cody Johnson and Thomas Rhett remains to be seen. In the country format, it typically takes several months for a song to become a top 10 hit; stations may show their cards (as it were) on “Texas Hold ‘Em” with less of a lag time. With real playlist additions for Beyoncé just starting to come in from reporting stations as of Thursday, prevailing winds may become apparent by the time the tipsheets’ add charts are published next week.