Kacey Musgraves Roasts A Country Radio Station For Saying It ‘Cannot Play Two Females Back To Back’

Yesterday, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee shared a segment that features conversations with country stars like Brandi Carlile and Margo Price about sexism in country music. Today, coincidentally, one country radio station didn’t exactly disprove the show’s point by declaring that they “cannot play two females back to back.” That message got the attention of Kacey Musgraves, so she fired back.

It began with a joke from Variety features editor Chris Willman, who tweeted, “I turned on the 105.1 country station in L.A. just now, and they were playing the new song by Gabby Barrett, and then, without any pause or interruption at all, they went into a Kelsea Ballerini song. Can’t they get fined for that?”

This prompted a controversial response from Michigan country radio station 98 KCQ, which wrote in a now-deleted tweet, “We cannot play two females back to back. Not even Lady Antebellum or Little Big Town against another female. I applaud their courage.”

Musgraves did not care for that sentiment, so she tweeted, “Smells like white male bullsh*t and why LONG ago I decided they cannot stop me.” She later added, “And yet, they can play 18 dudes who sound exactly the same back to back. Makes total sense.”

The station responded to Musgraves, “You are my favorite artist Kacey. I always pull for you when a new single comes out. Your music has meaning. I am not kissing up. Just speaking truth.”

The station’s tweet also launched a conversation with Ballerini, who responded, “To all the ladies that bust their asses to have half the opportunities that men do, I’m really sorry that in 2020, after YEARS of conversation of equal play, there are still some companies that make their stations play by these rules. It’s unfair and it’s incredibly disappointing.”

98 KCQ answered, “The conversation continues, Kelsea. I am not alone in this. And neither is the music industry. (Oscars). Women deserve their share of the airwaves.”

Somebody else asked the station why they say they can’t play songs by female artists back to back, and the station responded, “It’s really hard to pinpoint. A numbers game in the library of music. The number of songs by males outnumber females (that’s the total library, new music and gold). But manually adding Taylor, Maren Morris, and Kelsea is happening. I did not say we are not ADDING female songs.”

They added in a response to a different tweet, “There is no potential backlash [from listeners]. Or a corporate rule. The music is pre-scheduled and that is how it is scheduled. The music is also tested. With real live listeners. And EVERYONE has the opportunity to take the music test online.”

Meanwhile, Canadian country station 92.9 The Bull shared a different perspective, as program director Pat Dubois wrote, “As a successful big market country FM in Canada, this is nonsense. This morning we played @carlypearce, into your new one @KelseaBallerini. This is not uncommon. It also isn’t courageous. It’s called playing good music and not conforming to archaic ‘rules.’ Embarrassing. Furthermore, we went straight from those songs into the newest single from one of the most talented women in Canada, @jessmoskaluke. Hope that doesn’t make any radio consultants heads explode.”