On a recent Friday afternoon, KFWR 95.9-FM The Ranch seemed to be doing something a bit different and some on Twitter took notice. It seemed as though some fancy-pants mainstream interlopers had infiltrated its sacred airwaves as songs from Eric Church, Zac Brown Band, Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley played.

What in the name of Sturgill Simpson was happening?

As it turns out, nothing much. For years, the "Sound of Texas" has primarily featured country and Americana acts from Texas and our bordering states. Make no mistake about it though, the station's sonic boundaries have always extended beyond the Red River.

But rarely did The Ranch play country music "hits."

It often played grizzled roots-rock from out-of-state bands such as Lucero and American Aquarium. It also has played non-country stylings of favoredTexas sons such as beloved local soul crooner Leon Bridges and blues icon Stevie Ray Vaughan. Hearing a tune from Chicago's oddball dad-rockers Wilco on the Ranch wouldn't be unusual.

But, in the opinion of some vocal internet warriors, whatever boundaries the station has played within for years were egregiously breached.

The term "format change" was thrown around a good bit on Twitter and Facebook, but the new tunes are not nearly that disruptive. There wasn't any "stunting." And besides some discussion regarding country sub-genres, there wasn't much in the way of public acknowledgement from the station that any true changes were underway.

After staying active on social media all weekend, engaging with both supporters and detractors, afternoon DJ and station program director Shayne Hollinger stayed away from explicitly confirming that