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The Official Blog of WNZR's Afternoon Drive

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Rudolph or Rollo?!?

Who knew: Jingle Bells wasn’t even written for Christmas? It was actually a Thanksgiving song! But hey… it’s hard to resist a good sleigh ride in December

Who knew: Before plastic trees, the first artificial Christmas trees were made in Germany from green-dyed goose feathers. Yep — goose feathers. Festive… and probably a little fluffy

Who knew: Rudolph almost had a different name. Early drafts called him Rollo or Reginald. Imagine singing ‘Rollo the Red-Nosed Reindeer’… doesn’t quite land

Who knew: The first electric Christmas lights? Totally a marketing stunt. Thomas Edison’s team wired them up in the 1880s just to show off the power of electricity

Who am I?…

  1. I was born today, December 3, 1937, in Miami, Florida, and passed away on November 9, 2024, in Mooresville, North Carolina. 
  1. I was a central member of the famed “Alabama Gang,” a group of racers based in Hueytown, Alabama. This group was known for dominating NASCAR from the 1960s—1990s. 
  1. I won the 1983 NASCAR Cup Series Championship, driving for Di Gard Racing. 
  1. I earned 84 official NASCAR Cup Series wins, tying me for fourth on the all-time wins list. 
  1. My career effectively ended after a near-fatal crash in 1988 at Pocono Raceway, which resulted in major head injuries and forced my retirement from driving. 

I am… Bobby Allison! Congratulations to Tomi of Mount Vernon for taking home 2 $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Congratulations to Dennis of Utica and Bob from Mount Vernon for being caller #9 and playing our Christmas Gift Exchange! For more information about our fun exchange click HERE!

Thanks for listening!

Tune in for Praise Thursday with Eric!

– Joe and Gabriella 🙂

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Put These Spring Tour Dates On Your Calendar!!

So many of your favorite WNZR artists are planning to hit the road again in 2026! We have a couple more concerts, from Ben Fuller, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Forrest Frank to put on your radar!

Forrest Frank is back this summer! He’ll be coming to Cincinnatti, Ohio on “The Jesus Generation Tour,” with a grand lineup of Tori Kelly, Cory Asbury, The Figs, and more special guests! He’ll by stopping by at the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnatti, Ohio on Monday, July 27.

Last time Forrest went on tour, some locations sold out in minutes. If you want to catch Forrest in Ohio, make sure you keep track of when tickets go live.

Watch for the presale code here!

Steven Curtis Chapman is continuing to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his record “[Speechless],” with special guest La Vie Quartet! This record featured several loved songs like “Be Still and Know,” “Fingerprints of God,” “Speechless,” and “Dive”.

He’ll be in Akron, Ohio on Tuesday, March 3, at the Goodyear Theater, in Akron, Ohio! You can get tickets at our concerts page on our website, wnzr.fm.

Ticket information can be found here!

Coming off his Walk Through Fire Tour, Ben Fuller is bringing worship, raw honesty, and testimony on his Black Sheep Tour, with special guest Band Reeves. He’s inviting all the prodigals and the ones who feel like outsiders. Let the love of God show you that you are loved and never too far gone!

You can catch Ben at Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster, Ohio, on Sunday, April 19!

Ticket information can be found here!

Pray for Danny Gokey this week as he had an accident playing basketball! He is left with a black eye, but his Christmas tour is still on! Listen to Danny Gokey tell you about what happened here:

We had some Christmas lyrics for Song Poetry today! Here were today’s lyrics:

If you told me all about your sorrows
I’d tell you about a cure
If you told me you can’t fight the battle
There’s a ______ ______ who won the war

These lyrics were a stumper! If you know what song these lyrics are from, and the artist who sings the song, check back in next Tuesday! These lyrics will be worth two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica next week!

Tune in on Wednesday for some Who Knew Wednesday facts and a chance to win a gift from WNZR’s Christmas Gift Exchange!

Thank you for listening!
– Xander and Ethan

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Christmas Gift Exchange!!

The WNZR Christmas Gift Exchange IS BACK!
Tune in for your chance to win an amazing prize. Each day of the contest, our DJs will select Christmas gifts to put under the tree. Throughout the day, the DJs will give a cue to call 740-397-WNZR (9697).
Caller #9 gets the chance to pick which DJ’s gift they want from under the tree. You need to choose carefully, because you only get one chance to exchange the gift. We’ll announce the SEVEN grand prize winners on Friday, December 19th throughout the 7am hour on The Morning Thing. Congratulations to Lisa of Mount Vernon and Erica of West Virginia!

Name a popular Christmas decoration. 

  1. Christmas Tree (35) 
  1. Lights (30) 
  1. Ornaments (20) 
  1. Wreath (10) 
  1. Tinsel (5) 

Thanks for listening!

– Gabriella and Joe 🙂

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All of WNZR’s Brand New Christmas Music of 2025!

This year on WNZR, we have added 18 new Christmas songs, with some new originals and some remakes of the original classic Christmas songs!

Today on The Afternoon Drive, we listened to as many of them as we could! Be listening for these new songs on the Holly Jolly 25, where we listen to Christmas music all day long from December 1st all the way through Christmas!

You can view the full list of new Christmas music added to WNZR in 2025 on our website. Click here!

Here are some highlights from the show:

Tasha Layton – Christmas All Year Long

Tasha Layton’s new original Christmas song on WNZR has an incredible stop-motion music video. It’s a nod to the old stop-motion movies like Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer and Jack Frost. If you like that style of movies, you’ll love this music video!

Jason Gray & Point Of Grace – Comfort and Joy

Ethan’s favorite new Christmas song from this year is Jason Gray and Point Of Grace’s song, Comfort and Joy! Their four voices blend so well in this song that takes some inspiration from God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Ethan absolutely loves the feel and the message of this song. You can listen to their song here:

Downhere – How Many Kings

While we took a look at the new songs on WNZR, we also went back in time to 2007 to visit a song from Downhere. Their song How Many Kings highlights Jesus’ humbleness as He came down to earth from Heaven, and was born as a baby into a manger– The King of the world did that for you and me, even when we didn’t deserve it. You can listen to this song and worship along here:

Next Friday on The Afternoon Drive, Joe and Ethan will check out all the incredible Christmas duets we hear on WNZR during the Holly Jolly 25! We can’t wait for you to join us for it!

Thank you for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

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Devotionals Out Of God’s Word!!

Refuse to seek revenge! In Matthew 5:38, Jesus tells us, “You have heard that itw as said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.”

As believers and followers of Jesus, revenge should never be our response when we are wronged or hurt.

To read the full chapter of Matthew 5, click here!

Do you feel stuck in a mistake you made in the past, and maybe you even knew it was wrong in the moment? Whether it was 2 minutes ago, or 2 decades ago there is still redemption!

If you know the story of King David, you’ll remember a scandal he had with a woman named Bathsheba. King David took Bathsheba, committed adultery with her, and eventually murdered her husband by putting him in the front lines of a battle.

After all this took place, a prophet named Nathan came to David and made David realize the sins he committed. Once David realized his mistakes, he repented, apologized to God, and also wrote Psalm 51.

The beginning of this psalm says:

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
    and blot out all my iniquity.

Read the full psalm here!

We learn from this psalm that God is a God of compassion and grace, with arms forgiveness waiting for us to repent from our sins– no matter what we have done! When we confess and repent from our sins, there is grace waiting there for us every time.

Whatever you have, bring it to God and leave it as His feet!

Today we played a 20-second clip of a Christmas song on The Afternoon Drive!

This week’s Name That Tune was Frank Sinatra’s rendition of Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

Congratulations to Brenda from Mount Vernon for calling in and correctly guessing the song title and artist, taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Tune in on Friday for a special Afternoon Drive show where we go over all the new Christmas songs we added this year on WNZR!

Thank you for listening!
– Gabriella and Ethan

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Hugs and Gifts!!

Today is National Make A Gift Day!

For Who Knew Wednesday on The Afternoon Drive, we learned that today is dedicated to inspiring people to create personalized Christmas gifts for people they love. The heart behind this day is simple: Every person can be unique and create something they find fun and a blessing to someone they love!

Here are some ideas for a gift you could create:

  • You can bake a tasty treat!
  • You could write a poem or write a sweet letter!
  • You could create an origami!
  • You could raise a plant!

To learn more about this day, click here!

Today is also National Hug Day!

Regardless of what culture you grew up in, hugging is a universal way of showing affection to each other!

So what can you do to celebrate? Find your spouse, a family member, a friend, your children, even your pet, and show them your affection towards them and give them a hug!

To learn more about this day, click here!

Here were this week’s hints for our game of Who Am I?.

  1. I was born today, December 3, 1937, in Miami, Florida, and passed away on November 9, 2024, in Mooresville, North Carolina. 
  1. I was a central member of the famed “Alabama Gang,” a group of racers based in Hueytown, Alabama. This group was known for dominating NASCAR from the 1960s—1990s. 
  1. I won the 1983 NASCAR Cup Series Championship, driving for DiGard Racing. 
  1. I earned 84 official NASCUP Cup Series wins, tying me for fourth on the all-time wins list. 
  1. My career effectively ended after a near-fatal crash in 1988 at Pocono Raceway, which resulted in major head injuries and forced my retirement from driving. 

Today’s mystery person was a stumper! Tune in next week for a chance to win two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Thank you for listening!
– Ethan Hershberger

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Tasha Layton, Phil Wickham, MercyMe, and for King & Country Take Film to the Next Level!

We had a lot to talk about on this week’s Artist News Day! We checked out what some of your artists are up to: Tasha Layton, Phil Wickham, and for King & Country!

If you’ve seen their movie Unsung Hero, which talks about the Smallbone family’s upcoming and moving to America from Australia, you’ll be excited to see the next part of that story in for King & Country’s new documentary, No Turning Back!

This new film peeks further behind the curtain of the story of Unsung Hero and dives into the journey of how Joel and Luke Smallbone became for King & Country. As well-known as they are today, it is interesting to see the how hard the grind was at the birth of the band, and all of the road blocks they got to overcome. More information about tis film can be found here!

To watch this documentary, you can find the information here!

Phil Wickham is back with more worship songs on his new EP Psalm 8 (Hallé). This 3-song EP will be songs that you will hear on Angel Studio’s musical movie DAVID.

That’s right, one of your favorite WNZR artists will be heard voicing David himself on this upcoming movie, coming out December 19 in theatres, just before Christmas!

To learn more about this new release and about the upcoming movie DAVID, click here!

Have you ever wanted to see Tasha Layton as a stop-motion character? Well look no further than Tasha’s new Christmas All Year Long music video, where it’s entirely stop-motion!

We got to hear this song on The Afternoon Drive today! If you want to hear it and watch the incredibly made stop-motion music video along with it, go here:

All of this talk about our artists creating and being a part of incredible movies, documentaries, and films is getting us excited for the next big film from MercyMe! It’s the sequel to their movie I Can Only Imagine, titled I Can Only Imagine 2!

This story revolves around Bart and the band MercyMe’s big success after their song I Can Only Imagine hit #1, and sent them off on their musical career. Bart also now faces the responsibility of being a father, and he gets to learn how to raise his son who also has a diabetes medical condition. We’ll also get to see another artist, Tim Timmons, who became a big role model and mentor to Bart along this next step in his journey with Christ and in music! To learn more about this movie, click here!

You can watch the trailer for I Can Only Imagine 2 here:

Today, we got to have a conversation with Dr. Bob Tocheff, who talks about MVNU’s Advent Service happening on Wednesday, December 3, at 7:15PM!

This event is free and open to the public! It’s happening in the R.R. Hodges Chapel on the campus of MVNU. If you want to know more about who will be featured and what you can expect some of the repertoire to be, you can listen to the conversation we had with Dr. Bob on our SoundCloud!

We have some Christmas lyrics for Song Poetry this week! Here were this week’s lyrics:

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yule-tide carols being sung by a choir
Folks dressed up like Eskimos

These lyrics are from none other than Nat King Cole’s song The Christmas Song!

Congratulations to Tom from Howard for calling in and correctly guessing the song title and artist, taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Tune in on Wednesday for some fun facts on Who Knew Wednesday and a game of Who Am I?.

Thank you for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

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We talked with Dr. Bob Tocheff about MVNU’s Advent Service!

Dr. Bob Tocheff gives us a rundown and a peek behind the curtain of MVNU’s Advent Service! This free event will be in MVNU’s Chapel Auditorium on Wednesday, December 3rd at 7:30pm! Dr. Bob reveals which choirs and performing groups will be featured at this event, as well as the repertoire the Collegians Chorale will be featuring.

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The Holly Jolly 25 of 2025!

Here we go with wall-to-wall Christmas music!

Here are a couple of great Christmas songs we played today:

Name a Christmas Carol.

  1. Jingle Bells (35 votes)
  2. Silent Night (22)
  3. Deck the Halls (18)
  4. We Wish You a Merry Christmas (11)
  5. O Holy Night (8)

Congratulations to Melinda from Utica who answered correctly and wins the $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica.

Thanks for listening!
– Joe

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