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We’re Looking Forward To Christmas With Natalie Grant!

We had a packed show with artist news from Natalie Grant, Phil Wickham, and more from the 2025 GMA Dove Awards!

Natalie Grant is now signed to record label Captiol CMG, and with this, she’s already announced a brand new Christmas album, with some old-timey classics like Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, and Jingle Bells! This will be her first Christmas record in nearly 20 years, and she’s so excited for it!

Did you know there’s only 100 days until Christmas? So alongside this album release, Natalie Grant and Danny Gokey are going on their annual “Celebrate Christmas Tour”, which is on its 10th iteration!

To learn more about this new album and tour, click HERE!

Last week, we talked about Phil Wickham’s brand new album, Song Of The Saints that released last Friday, 9/12/2025! Now this week, Phil is celebrating this album release by going on tour with this record, appropriately called the “Song Of The Saints Tour”!

He’ll also be bringing special guest Jamie MacDonald with him!

To learn more about this tour, click HERE!

Zach Williams’ album “Jesus Loves” is coming out this Friday, 9/19/2025! It’s title track, Jesus Loves, has been climbing The NZ Top 10 for quite a while now!

To learn more about this new record, click HERE!

More GMA Dove Awards Performers and Presenters have been revealed!

We’ll get to see some favorite WNZR artists performing on October 7th, including Tauren Wells, for KING & COUNTRY, CeCe Winans, Josiah Queen, Elevation Worship, ELEVATION RHYTHM, and so many more!

We also see some WNZR artists presenting awards, including Bart Millard, bodie, Chris Tomlin, Crowder, Natalie Grant, and many more great presenters!

There will be even more announced in future weeks! To see the full list of artists and guests performing and presenting, click HERE!

We took some lyrics from a song we heard on The Afternoon Drive today and turned it into a poem! Here were today’s lyrics:

Every heartbroken, lonely soul sitting all alone
And every outcast, stuck in their past, scared of letting go
These are the ones
The ones that Jesus chose

Today’s lyrics came from Zach William’s song Jesus Loves!

Congratulations to Satarah from Howard for calling in and guessing the song title and artist, taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow for some fun facts for Sonfest 2025 on Who Knew Wednesday!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Xander and Ethan

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Josiah Queen Is Going On His First Big Headline Tour!!

We got some exciting stuff on Artist News Day this week! Let’s get into all the news:

Josiah Queen is taking his sophomore #1 album, Mt. Zion, on tour this Spring 2026, and you can catch him stopping by in Columbus! He’s bringing his friends Jervis Campbell and Gable Price with, who appear on his Mt. Zion album!

This concert will be taking place in an outdoor venue, KEMBA LIVE!. If you want to be a part of this night of worship, praise, folk, and joyful music, ticket information is available HERE!

We’ve gotten the pleasure to see Zach Williams on the charts with his title track to his new album, Jesus Loves! We’re gonna get to see this full album release next Friday, September 19th!

With a full 12 songs on this record, Zach Williams strongly believes in these songs, saying, “I’ve always believed in writing songs for real people who are going through real things.” More information about what Zach Williams is saying about his new album is found HERE!

Forrest Frank has come out with the deluxe version of his album Child Of God II! This album features artists we love on WNZR- Crowder, Cory Asbury, even The Figs, who we here on the song Lemonade!

More information about this album can be found HERE!

We’re happy to see that bodie released his debut album called No Skips! This album includes his hit Whisper & The Wind, which, at one point, made it on The NZ Top 10!

More information about this album can be found HERE!

We took some lyrics from a song we listened to during The Afternoon Drive to play Song Poetry! Here were this week’s lyrics:

Every time I call You, Jesus
I call You, I call You Savior
Worthy of glory forever
Something comes out of the grave
Every time I call Your Name

Today’s Song Poetry song was I Know A Name from Elevation Worship and Brandon Lake!

Congratulations to Kari from Newark for calling in and correctly guessing the song title and artist, taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow for some fun facts on Who Knew Wednesday!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Xander and Ethan

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CeCe Winans Wins Contemporary Female Artist Of The Year!

This Artist News Day is packed with award winners, a new album, and artist interactions! Let’s get into the news!

This past weekend, the queen of gospel music, CeCe Winans, had the honor of receiving two Stellar Awards, the Contemporary Female Artist Of The Year award and the Albertina Walker Female Artist Of The Year award!

CeCe is known for her big gospel hits like “That’s My King” (Which is up for a GMA Dove Award), “Come Jesus Come”, and of course, her rendition of “Goodness Of God”!

After the results of the Stellar Gospel Music Awards, we’re excited to see what happens with the GMA Dove Awards coming up in October! You can stay up to date with the Dove Awards by clicking HERE!

We have loved the music Phil Wickham has been bringing us, including his hits “The King Is In The Room” and his current #1 song “What An Awesome God”! These songs have been a great preview as to what we’re going to see on his upcoming album, which is called Song Of The Saints!

This new album from Phil is coming out next Friday, September 12, featuring the two hits previously mentioned, alongside songs he has loved performing live during the Summer Worship Nights tours this past summer!

You can learn more about this album on Phil’s website by clicking HERE!

Don’t miss out on our posts on Facebook, Instagram, and X! Not even Tauren Wells is missing out on our posts there!

Every week, we post Tunesday Tuesday on our social media, (You can follow us @WNZR_90.9FM) and this week’s Tune was Tauren Wells’ song “Let The Church Sing”. We were so excited to see Tauren comment on the post saying “It’s the parenthesis for me 😂”.

Join Tauren Wells and follow us on social media! Just click on the post and you can follow our page!

We had a throwback song for our Song Poetry this week! Here were this week’s lyrics:

Staring at a stop sign
Watching people drive by
T. Mac on the radio

Got so much on your mind
Nothing’s really going right
Looking for a ray of hope

This week’s song poetry lyrics are from the song Overcomer by the late Mandisa!

Congratulations to Erica from Howard for being the first to call in and guess the song title and artist, taking home a $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Xander and Ethan

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Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham’s Summer Worship Nights Recap!

Today we checked out what your WNZR artists have been up to this summer on Artist News Day!

Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham took some time this summer to go coast-to-coast with Josiah Queen on The Summer Worship Nights Tour! With sold-out shows and audiences of over 30,000, the trio brought the worship with them every night. From familiar worship songs like “Trust In God” to their hits like Lake’s Hard Fought Hallelujah, Wickham’s What An Awesome God, and Queen’s Can’t Steal My Joy, every song was sang to lift up and glorify the Name of Jesus!

Not only that, but Lake and Wickham went beyond the coast of the U.S. to wrap up the tour in the UK, worshipping with an audience of 35,000! With the response of this year’s Summer Worship Nights, we’re looking forward to see if Lake and Wickham will continue the tour next summer!

Tasha Layton is bringing listeners a brand new album, featuring songs we love like Worship Through It and Thank You Isn’t Enough! This one is called Life In Me, and she’s released the title track for this album, which features Rachael Lampa!

If you want to read more about this album and Tasha’s thoughts about it, read the JesusFreakHideout article HERE!

We’ve been talking about Josiah Queen’s new album, Mt. Zion, this month, and it just came out last Friday!

If you’re a fan of his songs Can’t Steal My Joy and Dusty Bibles, those songs are featured on this record, among many others! You can read more about this album by checking out the review on JesusFreakHideout by clicking HERE!

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

Three brothers in a fire
Willing to die for their faith
But You were with them in the fire
And they walked out the next day

And Daniel met a lion
Because he chose to pray
But You shut the mouth of that lion
And he walked out the next day

This week’s stumper lyrics are from the song Unashamed by Matthew West!

Congratulations to Brady from Mount Vernon for being the first to call in and guess the song title and artist, taking home two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Xander and Ethan

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Album Releases For The Month Of August!

Today we talked about all the new music and albums coming from your artists here on WNZR! There’s one already out, and there a few new ones to come as well!

MercyMe has debuted their twelfth studio album, Wonder & Awe last Friday, August 8th!

With thirteen tracks on this one, the band takes a twist on the kind of style of music audiences would expect for them to put out. Lead singer Bart Millard described it as feeling like being in a teenage garage band, where they get to make music they are having fun with, and not be put under an expectation of what kind of style of music to make.

The album title, Wonder & Awe speaks as a theme of wanting to go back to that place of adventure, surprise, and as the title suggests, wonder and awe. Millard said one time “I mean think about it, not much surprises us these days”. And no wonder! With all the information we need in the palms of our hand. So the band wants to take us back “to eyes open wide” and “to that kid who once believed he was always made to fly”. When listening through this record, you can tell the band had a lot of fun putting this one together!

To read the full album review on JesusFreakHideout, click HERE!

Katy Nichole is releasing her second full-length studio album, Honest Conversations, on Friday, August 15th!

With her previous record, Jesus Changed My Life, Katy Nichole touched hearts with her honest, touching, and passionate lyrics that filled her songs. This album is bringing more of that heartfelt honesty that speaks to people worldwide.

It’s incredible to see how the Lord uses Nichole’s struggles to speak through to others who are going something tragic as well. We got to see a little of what this album will be like by getting to hear Katy Nichole’s song When I Fall when she released it 8 months ago!

To learn more about this upcoming record, click HERE!

Josiah Queen is debuting his second full-length studio album, Mt. Zion, on Friday, August 22nd!

With a unique style of folk-pop music, Queen is bringing that same unique style in new ways on this upcoming record! We’ve gotten to hear a few songs that will be on this record, such as Can’t Steal My Joy (feat. Brandon Lake) and Dusty Bibles!

We’ve seen Queen’s social media go viral ever since his big hit The Prodigal, and when he teases snippets of his new music, it almost never fails to bring excitement to listeners all over!

To hear more of what Josiah Queen said about this upcoming release, click HERE!

Keep David Crowder in your prayers for these next few weeks! He broke his leg last week, saying “I’m not near as athletic as I thought I was-“, and because of this he said he will also be missing a couple of shows as a result.

This week’s Song Poetry is a returning stumper! That means we weren’t able to find a winner for Song Poetry, so the winner of this one takes home three $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Here were the lyrics:

Come see all the captives run free
He’s tearing down the walls
He’s tearing down the walls
There’s grave shaking power when we sing
The Name above them all
Your Name above them all

These Song Poetry lyrics were from Phil Wickham’s The King Is In The Room! And for this week’s returning stumper, congratulations goes to Connie from Centerburg for being the first to call in and guess the song title and artist correctly!

Tune in tomorrow for a fun day of fun facts on Who Knew Wednesday, and for a game of Who Am I?, which is also a stumper, so tune in from 4-6pm for a chance to win two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Xander and Ethan

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Happy Birthday Katy Nichole!

Today on Artist Newsday we celebrated Katy Nichole’s birthday, and with that we went over all that she has accomplished in this past year! We also got updated with what’s happening with Forrest Frank and his back injury.

Katy Nichole was born today, July 29, 2000, making her 25 years of age this year. Since her last birthday in 2024, Katy Nichole has appeared on the NZ Top 10 with her song When I Fall, speaking to listeners far and wide with her deeply honest song which emphasized her desperation for God through very painful moments in her life. This song is set to appear on her brand new full-length album coming out on August 15th, which is called Honest Conversations!

Forrest Frank has been recovering in bed since his injury a week-and-a-half ago when he fell off his skateboard at his home, breaking his back. He fractured his L3 and his L4, and this is what he has been up to since then.

Forrest says on his Instagram account, “Following God is kind of hilarious because I’m feeling thankful for my back breaking???????” He goes on to declare, “Drugs don’t do this, money can’t do this, nothing else…. only JESUS”. Forrest is finding joy in every circumstance he finds himself in… even in the midst of recovering from a broken back. What an example he is leading to a generations young and old on social media– To rejoice always, glorifying God no matter what situation he finds himself in!

Today we pulled some lyrics from a song we heard on The Afternoon Drive and played Song Poetry! Here were the lyrics we picked today:

Come see all the captives run free
He’s tearing down the walls
He’s tearing down the walls
There’s grace shaking power when we sing
The Name above them all
Your Name above them all

Today’s Song Poetry was a stumper! If you think you know which song these lyrics are from, and who sings this song, listen in next week during The Afternoon Drive and give us the answer! If you can guess this stumper, you will get two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow for some fun facts for Who Knew Wednesday!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Ethan Hershberger

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We’re “Counting Our Blessings”, Listening To Seph Schlueter’s New Full-Length Album!

We’re absolutely loving the music Seph Schlueter has been putting out! We get to see some of our favorites from him, and some brand new ones, in a full-length, 11-song album called “Counting My Blessings”, including the title track which was his first big hit!

On Artist Newsday today, we went more in depth with Seph’s new album that is out now, Josiah Queen’s new album, and something new coming from a band from the vault we hear on WNZR, called Kutless!

Seph Schlueter blows us away with his style of music that the Lord has spoken through to so many people, touching so many lives. This album reminds us of God’s grace and that His grace is always sufficient for us and never runs out. It’s an album full of worship and gratitude towards God. We’ve been so blessed to hear songs like Running Back To You and the title track, Counting My Blessings, on WNZR, which you can find on this new album!

With this new release, Seph will be taking his these new songs with him on his Counting My Blessings Tour this Fall alongside a favorite new artist, bodie! They’ll be stopping at The George in Cincinnati, Ohio on Thursday, October 2nd! You can find more details and ticket information on the Concert page on our website by clicking HERE!

What can you look forward to next with new album releases? You can keep an eye out for Josiah Queen, who’s releasing a new, full-length album titled MT. ZION. This new album includes the new one from Josiah and Brandon Lake, Can’t Steal My Joy, alongside some songs of his that have been blowing up on social media! God is once again using artists like Josiah to spread the love of God to areas like social media, and spread the Good News of the Gospel to people who may not have heard that much about Jesus or what He did to pay for each and every one of all our sins!

Josiah Queen be here in Ohio soon, joining the stage with Tauren Wells at the Ohio State Fair on Monday, July 28th! Keep listening in for ticket giveaways for this concert! We’re doing Tauren Wells and Josiah Queen trivia questions, and whoever calls in first with the correct answer takes home two tickets to the concert! Don’t miss your chance and tune into The Morning Thing, 6am – 9am, and The Afternoon Drive, 4pm – 6pm! More details about this concert and the Ohio State Fair can be found HERE on our website!

With their unique and hard rock style, the band Kutless creates a Revelation-inspired 6-song EP which is called The Seventh Seal. You can find this new EP on their YouTube channel, by clicking HERE and find it where they stream music!

Today we played Song Poetry! We took a segment of lyrics from one of the songs we heard during The Afternoon Drive. Here were the lyrics we had for Song Poetry today:

I don’t know who I’d be if I didn’t know You,
I’d probably fall off the edge.
I don’t know where I’d go if You ever let go,
So keep me held in Your hands.

This week’s song was… “Thank God I Do” from Lauren Daigle! Congratulations to Janell from Mount Vernon for calling in and guessing both the song title and artist correctly, taking home the $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow for a game of Who Am I? and some fun facts on Who Knew Wednesday!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Ethan Hershberger

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TobyMac is bringing a very special tour to Ohio!

Today is a very special Artist News Day! We’ve got news from TobyMac, a unique tour from him, Seph Schlueter, releasing his first full length album and announcing a full tour along with it, and news from Stars Go Dim as well!

Last week, TobyMac announced the Heaven On My Mind Start To Finish Tour, and it’s a little different from other tours he has taken. He’s stopping at the Akron Civic Theatre in Akron, OH on November 6th, which is one of five states he will be visiting on this tour! This is an intimate, more personal concert, where TobyMac will be performing his entire latest record live from start to finish, as the name suggests! Not only that, he’ll also be performing other great hits from his earlier records as well!

Ticket sales go live tomorrow, Wednesday, July 2nd and if you want to buy tickets, click HERE! The concert is on November 6th, at 7PM!

TobyMac’s latest record is called “Heaven on My Mind”, where TobyMac is on the other side of grieving the tragic loss of his son, Truett. This record is deeply honest, and as the record title says, after everything TobyMac has gone through, he has Heaven on his mind, keeping his “eye on the prize”, so to speak. He is counting on God, and he’s diving in even deeper into his trust in God!

Seph Schlueter is coming out with a his first ever full-length album on July 11th! It will have a whole 17 songs on it, and includes collabs with the likes of Matt Maher and Essential Worship. Alongside this album release, he’s going on tour with this record and all of his other songs, so you’ll get to hear songs like “Counting My Blessings”, “Running Back To You”, and many more! He’s coming to Cincinnati, OH with bodie to bring you a fun, worship-filled night! If you want to order tickets for this concert, click HERE!

Stars Go Dim is releasing a full length album called Roses on July 11th! Check it out HERE!

Today we played Song Poetry! Here were the lyrics we took from a song we’ve heard during today’s show:

I will not be afraid
In the end, you will lose
I will dance on your grace
With the one who buried you.

Today’s song was “Oh Death” from MercyMe! Congratulations to Kelly from Mount Vernon for calling in and guessing the song and artist correctly, taking home that $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow for Who Knew Wednesday!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Ethan Hershberger

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Third Day Returns For 30th Anniversary Tour!!! MercyMe’s 12th Full Length Album Release!!!

Today’s Artist Newsday is packed with exciting news! MercyMe is releasing their twelfth full length album called “Wonder & Awe”, which includes songs like “Oh Death”, which we hear on WNZR! Not only that, but Third Day is back for the first time in such a long time, with their 30th Anniversary Tour, featuring a Zach Williams!

We haven’t seen Third Day on the road since 2018 after their Farewell Tour and lead singer Mac Powell decided to pursue a solo career. They will be in Dayton, Ohio on May 7th, but if you want to go, be prepared. Their last tour, the Farewell Tour, sold out in just twelve minutes, so if you want tickets for this tour, they’ll be available this Friday at 10am! If you want to save the link, click here!

MercyMe has been anticipating listeners with their newest full length album! They have given us a taste of what “Wonder & Awe”, their new album, is going to look and sound like with their song “Oh Death”, and they have announced this record will release on August 8th on streaming services! They talked about their upcoming record, the heart behind it, and what they want listeners to take away from listening to it on their YouTube channel!

Today we played song poetry! We picked four lines of lyrics from a song we hear on WNZR, and spoke it like a poem! Here were the lyrics to our Song Poetry:

Yeah, I don’t always feel it,
Yeah, but that’s when I need it the most.
So, I’ma keep on singing,
‘Til my soul catches up with my song.

Today’s song was Brandon Lake and Jelly Roll’s “Hard Fought Hallelujah”! Congratulations to Brylan from Mount Vernon for guessing the title and artist correctly, taking home that $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow on Wednesday for a game of Who Am I? and Who Knew Wednesday!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Xander and Ethan

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