Alkaline earth metal and rare earth tungstate and molybdate compounds are promising candidates as host materials for high efficiency narrow spectral emission red phosphors when activated by trivalent europium (Eu3+). These phosphors emit in the range of 610–620 nm with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of less than 10 nm, which makes them suitable for use in high color rendering index phosphor-converted white light emitting diodes (pc-WLEDs). However these phosphors suffer from poor excitation using the currently available GaInN based high efficiency blue LEDs in the 400–470 nm range. This paper discusses the role of various crystallographic structures on the excitation characteristics of the phosphor. Using appropriate crystal structures, it has been shown that Mo6+-O2− charge transfer band edge shifts from far-UV (280–350 nm) to near-UV and Blue (380–430 nm) region as the coordination number of the transition metal ion is increased from 4 to 6 making these phosphors suitable for excitation with near-UV or Blue LEDs. Furthermore it has been demonstrated that phosphors crystallized from flux exhibit significantly higher emission intensity compared to powders of the same composition synthesized using solid state reactions.