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Jamie MacDonald Performs on the Kelly Clarkson Show!

Jamie MacDonald has been making waves since her debut single Desperate, which only took 12 weeks to hit #1!

She hasn’t stopped there. Jamie made her television debut appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, featuring a song from her first and latest self-titled album!

Watch and listen to Jamie MacDonald’s performance of her song Won’t Let Go on The Kelly Clarkson Show here!

Jamie is also making her Grand Ole Opry debut on Friday, May 1st! To read more about this upcoming appearance, click HERE!

We Are Messengers are back with their 5th studio album, Halfway Home!

This new 13-track record is set to explore “the tension between the now and not yet.” Darren Mulligan, lead singer of We Are Messengers, talks about the need for other believers in his faith journey, a theme this album explores throughout.

This project will release this fall, on Friday, September 25th. More information can be found HERE!

We had a stumper this week for Song Poetry! Here were this week’s lyrics:

Go tell the world about Me
I was dead but now I live
I’ve gotta go now for a little while
But goodbye is not the end

Congratulations to Bonnie from Mount Vernon for calling in and correctly guessing the song title and artist. Because this week’s Song Poetry is a stumper, Bonnie will be taking home two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Tune in on Wednesday for some Who Knew? fun facts for Who Knew? Wednesday, and another chance to win a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica with a game of Who Am I!

Thank you for listening!
– Xander and Ethan

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Anne Wilson Sings The National Anthem at NASA’s Artemis II Launch!

NASA’s Artemis II has officially launched, taking multiple astronauts to orbit the moon!

Anne Wilson was excited to be performing The National Anthem before Artemis II’s launch!

Anne said this on social media:

“What an incredible honor it was to sing the National Anthem at the Artemis II launch!!! This moment feels so full circle for me. There was a time in my life when I dreamed of becoming an astronaut and working for @NASA.”

You can watch Anne’s performance here!

To learn more about this occasion, click HERE!

Yesterday, on April 6th, the Artemis II astronauts woke up to Mandisa and TobyMac’s Good Morning!

We’re so excited to see the astronauts on this mission expressing glory to the Lord!

If you want to remember Mandisa’s Good Morning, check out her live performance on Good Morning America here!

We had a stumper on Song Poetry from last week! Here are this week’s lyrics:

He’s not done with me, not done with you
No matter what we’re going through
Our hope is in an empty tomb
And the God that’s still not in it

Congratulations to Isabella from Mount Vernon for correctly guessing the song title and artist! Isabella will be taking home two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Tune in on Wednesday for some Who Knew? fun facts for Who Knew? Wednesday, and another chance to win a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica with a game of Who Am I?!

Thank you for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

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Legacy Artist Switchfoot Returns With Upcoming Album!

Do you remember Switchfoot from back in the day? How could we forget– with songs like This Is Home, Gone, and Dare You To Move, this band has left a mark on Christian music!

Switchfoot are back at it again with a brand new album, Forever Now, set to release this summer on Friday, June 26.

The band has already given us a first look at this project with their brand new single, Wake Up, Mr. Crow.

Switchfoot’s bassist commented on this upcoming release, “Making an album is like climbing a mountain — an intentional step forward for the band and the story we are telling. The time between albums gave us space to rebuild our creative energy. And last year, we knew it was finally time to start climbing again.”

The band is coming back fresh, and ready to bring some new music to listeners after 5 years since their last release!

To learn more about their return and new album Forever Now, click HERE!

Here is Switchfoot’s first song called Wake Up, Mr. Crow, from their new album releasing this summer, June 26!

Rend Collective is back on the road again this Spring, and they’re making a stop in Ohio on their U.S. Tour 2026!

This time around, they’re visiting our Knox County neighbor, Newark, Ohio, in Licking County!

They’ll be at the Midland Theatre, in Newark, Ohio, on Saturday, April 11, starting at 6PM for Early Entry, and 7PM for General Admission.

Hailing from Northern Ireland, they’re bringing your favorite hits like Build Your Kingdom Here, Hallelujah Anyway, and you may even catch some of your new favorites from them as well!

Tickets to see Rend Collective Live can be found HERE!

Rend Collective recently made a sea chanty! Check it out here:

We had a stumper on Song Poetry this week! Here were this week’s lyrics:

He’s not done with me, not done with you
No matter what we’re going through
Our hope is in an empty tomb
And the God that’s still not in it

This week’s Song Poetry is a stumper! That means next week, these same lyrics will be worth two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica. Make sure you tune in at 5:15PM on Tuesday next week on The Afternoon Drive!

Tune in on Wednesday for some Who Knew? fun facts for Who Knew? Wednesday, and another chance to win a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica with a game of Who Am I?!

Thank you for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

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NEEDTOBREATHE Brand New Album, Phil Wickham’s Spring Tour!

We’re seeing some new music from NEEDTOBREATHE in their 10th studio album, The Long Surrender. It releases this Friday, March 27 at midnight!

With twelve brand new songs, the band gets personal by pouring real and raw into every lyric.

Listen to the title track to their latest album here:

To learn more about their album, The Long Surrender, click HERE!

NEEDTOBREATHE is also hitting the road this fall with some new songs from this record on their The Long Surrender Tour!

The band will be stopping in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Jacobs Pavilion on Friday, August 28, 2026. The show will start at 7PM.

For ticket information, click HERE!

Phil Wickham has kicked off his Song Of The Saints Tour, and he’s coming to Columbus, Ohio!

He’s taking some of your favorite Phil Wickham classics as well as some new songs from his Song Of The Saints album, with Tauren Wells and Jamie MacDonald joining him!

You can see Phil with the Song Of The Saints Tour at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday, April 17th! The show starts at 7PM, so make sure you arrive at least an hour early as doors open earlier!

Ticket information can be found HERE!

Here is Phil’s new song Homesick For Heaven, from his Song Of The Saints album!

Here were this week’s Song Poetry lyrics!

Take my life and let it be
My soul devoted Lord to Thee
Take my moments and all my days
Make them endless praise

These lyrics were from Let It Be A Hallelujah by Lauren Daigle!

Congratulations to Trevor from Saint Louisville for calling in and correctly guessing the song title and artist! He will be taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

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

Thank you for listening!
– Ethan Hershberger

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Deluxe Albums from Phil Wickham and Zach Williams!

Do you ever wish there was just a little more an artist would add to a brand new album? Well, sometimes artists will release deluxe versions of their albums, which adds a few new songs and brand new collabs on songs you know and love!

Phil Wickham – Song Of The Saints (Deluxe)

If you’ve loved hearing songs from Phil Wickham’s Song Of The Saints album, like The King Is In The Room, What An Awesome God, and Phil’s latest single Homesick For Heaven, you will love hearing new versions of these songs, along with some other new songs on Phil’s Song Of The Saints (Deluxe) album!

New Versions
– The King Is In The Room (Live)
– What An Awesome God (Song Session) (with Michael W. Smith)
– Homesick For Heaven (Petey Remix)

Here is that new version of What An Awesome God featuring Michael W. Smith here:

To learn more about Phil’s deluxe album, click HERE!

Phil Wickham is also taking a lot of his songs from his Song Of The Saints album on tour with Tauren Wells and Jamie MacDonald!

You can see Phil with the Song Of The Saints Tour at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday, April 17th! The show starts at 7PM, so make sure you arrive at least an hour early as doors open earlier!

Ticket information can be found HERE!

Zach Williams – Jesus Loves (Deluxe)

Zach Williams’ song Jesus Loves, which climbed into The NZ Top 10 for some time, is the title track of his latest album. Zach has added a couple new songs and new versions of his songs on his Jesus Loves (Deluxe) album! Zach’s new song on WNZR, Wait For Me featuring Ben Fuller made its debut on this deluxe album!

New Versions
– Wait For Me (featuring Ben Fuller)
– Say A Prayer (featuring Thomas Rhett)
– If God Lives Here (New Studio Recording)

Here’s that new version of Zach’s song Wait For Me, featuring Ben Fuller! This new song can also be heard throughout the day on 90.9FM WNZR!

To learn more about Zach’s deluxe album, click HERE!

Zach Williams will be Third Day’s very special guest on their 30th Anniversary Tour!

They will be stopping at the Wright State University Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio, on Thursday, May 7, and the concert will start at 7PM. Make sure you arrive at least an hour early as doors open earlier!

Ticket information can be found HERE!

Here were this week’s Song Poetry lyrics:

I’ve gone where the hopeless go, the dead end of a broken road
And I’ve learned there’s a place so low you can’t see your way out
Been stuck in a ditch so deep, thought it might be the end of me
But I’m still here and there could only be one way how

These lyrics are found in the song God Story by Anne Wilson!

Congratulations to Lindsey from Fredericktown for correctly guessing the song title and artist for these Song Poetry lyrics! She’s taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Tune in on Wednesday for some Who Knew? fun facts and another chance to win a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant with a game of Who Am I?.

Thank you for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

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Crowder, Jamie MacDonald, and For KING & COUNTRY On This Week’s Artist News Day!

We covered a lot for Artist News Day on The Afternoon Drive today! Here is this week’s artist news:

Crowder announced his LIVE! concert, and he’s bringing his friends Seph Schlueter and Patrick Mayberry along with him!

You can catch them in Akron Ohio this spring on Sunday, May 3!

You can find ticket information here!

Jamie MacDonald debuted her first, self-titled album last Friday!

This record includes your favorite #1 hits from Jamie, including Desperate and Left It In The River, and has many new ones you’re sure to love. With raw honesty, worship, and humble vulnerability, this album is sure to touch your heart in more ways than one!

Learn more about Jamie MacDonald’s new album here!

Last week, the Ohio State Fair announced For KING & Country as a part of their concert lineup this summer!

The Australian brother duo will stop by the state fair on August 3rd, and will be seen in the Ohio State Fair’s Celeste Center! You can find more information about For KING & COUNTRY on our website here!

Tickets can be purchased online here!

We had a stumper from last week! These Song Poetry lyrics are worth two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Here were this week’s lyrics:

And I don’t need to see it to believe it
For my whole life, You’ve been that all I’ve needed
And I, I’ve felt You in the fire and the rain

This week’s Song Poetry was, once again, a stumper! If you think you know the song title and artist these lyrics are from, tune in next week for a chance to potentially win three $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

On Wednesday, there will be a shortened version of The Afternoon Drive. The show will end at 4:40 to start the MVNU Cougars Women’s Basketball . We’ll see you here at 4pm for a condensed Who Knew Wednesday!

Thank you for listening!
– Xander and Ethan

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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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Music Awards, Christmas Albums, and CeCe Winans Singing at the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving!!

Buckle in! We have a lot to talk about on Artist News Day! Here is all we talked about on The Afternoon Drive today!

Brandon Lake continues to add more awards to his repertoire! The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) declared Brandon won 2 awards on November 10th.

Brandon was awarded Christian Music Songwriter of the Year and Christian Music Song of the Year, which was Praise, a song that rose to #1 for 31 weeks, co-written by Brandon Lake and Pat Barrett. With these 2 new additions, Brandon Lake now holds around fifteen ASCAP awards!

Further information can be found here!

We’re not the only ones starting to get into the Christmas spirit! Blessing Offor is joining the party with a new EP titled To All A Good Night!

This EP includes some new Christmas originals, like To All A Good Night and God With Us. He also is throwing in his special twists on *NSYNC’s Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Otis Redding’s Merry Christmas, Baby.

Here’s the full list of songs on Blessing’s EP:

1. To All A Good Night (Blessing Offor & Nathan Wallace)

2. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

3. God With Us (Blessing Offor & Andrew Skib)

4. Merry Christmas, Baby

5. Wonderful Christmastime

6. Snow Globe (Blessing Offor, John Thomas Roach,

Steven Colyer)

7. Like A Child (Blessing Offor)

8. Little Drummer Boy

Further information can be found here!

Do you ever wonder how much work goes into the writing of a song? Well, for some artists, it’s a lot more than you think!

We’ve discovered Jon Reddick, an artist with hits like God Turn It Around, I Believe It, and his recent #1 hit No Fear, paints his own album covers! That’s right, the one you see above you, and every album you see from Jon, are hand painted by Jon himself!

After knowing this, you can’t unsee it! More info about Jon’s heart behind his paintings can be found here!

If you love Gospel music and football, you have a special treat awaiting for you! CeCe Winans will be performing the National Anthem at the Detroit Lion vs the Green Bay Packers game on Thursday, November 27th, which is the day of Thanksgiving!

This game will be the Detroit Lions’ 86th Annual Thanksgiving Day Classic! You can watch CeCe perform at this huge event on FOX at 1PM EST!

Did you know TobyMac had a conversation on Focus On The Family?

Toby talks in this conversation about losing his son, trusting that help is on the way, and holding on to hope in all circumstances.

You can watch and listen to the entire conversation on their YouTube channel:

Here were this week’s Song Poetry lyrics:

Cloud by day, fire by night
Guide my way, oh, move me right
Break the chains, set me free
Make a way like I ain’t never seen

This week’s lyrics were a stumper! See if you can figure out the artist and song title from these lyrics, and check back in next Tuesday for a chance to win two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Tune in on Wednesday with Joe Rinehart and Gabriella Stanley for Who Knew Wednesday and a game of Who Am I?.

Thank you for listening!
– Xander and Ethan

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Jamie MacDonald Announces Her First Studio Album!

We dug into the weeds a little bit on this week’s Artist News Day. We talked about Jamie MacDonald’s first upcoming studio album, as well as the details regarding MercyMe’s second debut to the silver screen, I Can Only Imagine 2.

Jamie MacDonald, recently signed onto Capitol CMG, announced her first ever album that will be coming out early next year! This self-titled album is scheduled to release on January 23rd, 2026 and will feature well-known favorites heard on WNZR like Desperate and Left It In The River.

You can expect this album to be full of honesty, faith, and healing as we see the story it tells. Jamie is telling listeners, “For over a decade, I’ve held onto God’s promise that I would one day write songs that would first heal me, and then bring healing to others. That time is now.”

You can find her taking some of the songs on her new record while she’s on the road this fall and upcoming spring! She’ll be coming to Ohio with:

  • Benjamin William Hastings on his At The Heart Of It Tour in Pickerington, Ohio on Friday, November 14th
  • Chris Tomlin on his Christmas With Chris Tomlin tour in Grove City, Ohio on Friday, December 19th
  • Phil Wickham on his Song Of The Saints Tour in Columbus, Ohio on Friday, April 17th

If you want to see Jamie live at any of these events, you can get tickets by going to the Concerts page on our website here!

We talked about MercyMe’s sequel to their box office hit, I Can Only Imagine last week, and earlier last week we got to take a look at their movie as they released the first trailer to I Can Only Imagine 2.

In this trailer, we see some of the struggles Bart goes through as he becomes a father. We also get a look at Bart’s new mentor, Tim Timmons, some struggles that he deals with, and how God uses him to help Bart as he learns how to be a good dad to his son Sam.

The full synopsis is found on their website here!

All of that and more is seen on their new trailer!

Here were this week’s lyrics for Song Poetry!

The truth of its nature
It’s always give and never take
It flows with that freedom
Surrendering itself away
Carves canyons through stone
Tells the rivers to run home

This week’s Song Poetry was a stumper! If you think you know the song title and artist of these lyrics, 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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