Attention BeyHive: There is a radio station in Houston that has officially changed its news format to become all Beyoncé, all the time.
You heard right. This is not a drill. The former News92 FM shut down on Tuesday (October 7) and woke up “like this” the next morning, playing Beyoncé songs around the clock.
“She’s Queen [Bey]. In looking to make a transition, we go back to what we know,” Radio One’s Yashima Azilove told ABC 13’s Eyewitness News. “We know urban radio. We’re in Houston, the combination seemed like a winning one.”
Wow, Beyoncé really does run the world — or at least the Beygency does.
Unfortunately, all those back-to-back Yoncé hits came at a hefty price.
The changeover from news reports, traffic updates and weather conditions to the nonstop playlist of “Drunk in Love,” “Flawless” and other chart-toppers by Houston’s favorite daughter left 47 of News92′s employees without a job.
“This difficult decision is a result of sustained poor ratings performance and significant financial losses over the past three years despite the substantial financial and human resources we invested,” said Radio One in a statement on its website.
“Unfortunately, the market hasn’t shown a sustainable appetite for news radio, but each of you motivated us daily to produce a high-quality news program,” continued the statement. “Together, we made history.”
According to reports, all of the employees that were laid off were given severance packages.
“They gave it their best shot. Management lost money on this operation for four straight years,” Dennis Spellman, one of the impacted journalist, told ABC 13. “I can’t think of any other company that would have given us that amount of time.”
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