This holiday season, local radio station KOIT 96.5 found itself in the national spotlight when it took the tune "Baby It's Cold Outside" out of its holiday song rotation in the wake of receiving over 100 complaints about the song's undertones of date-rape.

But then came the backlash to the backlash, and as of yesterday morning, the song is back on-air.

After KOIT program director Brian Figula decided to pull the plug on the song last week, the story was picked up by Channel 7 news, and the radio station received a tidal wave of comments requesting the song's return to the airwaves.

Figula decided to create a poll on the KOIT website.

"We looked at it as an opportunity to have a discussion," he said. "We let our listeners talk about it and choose for themselves if they want to hear it."

Over 22,000 people weighed in. The results? 77 percent of its listeners supported the song.

I voted. Thank you for thinking of the listeners and our opinions on it. You guys are great. — Cesar Abella (@CesarAbella16) December 5, 2018

Some listeners avidly supported silencing the ditty.

Please do not play it. Promoting rape culture is not beneficial to our society. The song's message is not worth the nostalgic feelings. — Marjan Mohyee (@mmohyee) December 5, 2018

And some listeners felt the intense scrutiny of the song was unnecessary.

This is the most RIDICULOUS ban ever! I’m in full support of the #MeToo movement and changing our country’s culture, but we need to STOP dissecting everything from the past and work on changing present behaviors. — Gina Marie Urizar (@belle_lumiere18) December 5, 2018

Considering the year it was written and the social mores that women were expected to follow in the '40s — the song can be interpreted as either a coy dance among enamored adults or a red-flag-riddled date-rape scene. Yet other music lovers say the song has feminist underpinnings.

"Baby It's Cold Outside" appears in the 1949 Esther Williams film "Neptune's Daughter" and won the Academy Award for Best Song the very same year. The controversial duet depicts a man trying to convince a woman to stay with him despite her hesitations.

(Interestingly enough, the film features the song twice; its second appearance features Betty Garrett and Red Skelton where the woman aggressively tries to seduce the man.)

Conversations around consent have shifted dramatically over the past decades; at the time when the song was written, women were discouraged and shamed from being sexually forward. "Baby It's Cold Outside" is, in many ways, an illustration of the nuances that women must navigate to be able to say "yes" or "no" without judgement, according to an anonymous Tumblr post written by a former English teacher that went viral.

Figula recognizes that he has waded into a political discussion beyond the ken of his chart-topper radio station which started this year's Christmas song playlist on November 16. "Let's face it, there's a political agenda to all this," he said. "Our radio station is a music station. We don't have a political agenda. Our goal is to play the biggest hits in the United States."

Other radio stations who have received backlash for banning the duet include Cleveland's WDOK and Denver's KOSI.

Figula said it has been a difficult decision. "We've replied to literally every email that's come into the radio station. That's well over 1,000 emails over the last week," he said. "Women have contacted me [who] have been raped or sexually harassed. Women with teenage daughters have said they don't want their kids to hear the lyrics. They find it offensive and I can respect that, though the majority disagrees."