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Driving Notes

The Official Blog of WNZR's Afternoon Drive

Let God Help and Heal!!

We love getting to start our week off with some Monday Motivation for you! We took a look at some encouraging and uplifting songs during The Afternoon Drive! Here’s what we talked about:

Find reasons to praise God and maintain faith even when life is difficult, filled with challenges and pain, not just during easy times. Bad things are prone to happen in a world with freewill. In bad times I hold my faith tightly and talk to God. It’s vital to pray and focus on the positives even when they’re hard to find. When times are hard find something to celebrate and praise God. He is here for us.

Isaiah 41:10 says “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”.

“Hallelujah Anyway” – Rend Collective lyric video

We also talked about The Afters song “You Never Gave Up On Me” for Joe’s Monday Motivation!

Here is your Verse Of The Week on WNZR!

Isaiah 40:8 (NIV)- “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever”. 

All this week during the Morning Thing and Afternoon Drive, we will be giving trivia questions about one artist. The first caller to guess the artist correctly wins TWO SonFest tickets for this Saturday 9/20! Stay tuned throughout the week! Congratulations to Janell of Mount Vernon for winning two tickets for SonFest on The Afternoon Drive!

For our Mystery Monday, we had another game of Family Feud!

Name a reason people wake up in the middle of the night. 

Bathroom – 35 (votes) 

Noise – 25 (votes)

Nightmare – 15 (votes)

Thirsty – 15 (votes)

Kids crying – 10 (votes)

Congratulations to Hannah of Mount Vernon for being the first call to answer the top two answers, taking home TWO $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow on Tuesday for Artist News Day and Game Time Tuesday!

Thank you so much for listening!

– Joe and Gabriella

The NZ Top 10 for 9/12/2025

Thank you for tuning in to The Afternoon Drive! Here is this week’s top 10 countdown:

10. Micah Tyler – God Did It
9. Jon Reddick – No Fear
8. Tauren Wells – Let The Church Sing
7. MercyMe – Oh Death (former #1)
6. Josiah Queen f/Brandon Lake – Can’t Steal My Joy
5. Emerson Day – Get Behind Me
4.Forrest Frank – Your Way’s Better
3. Zach Williams – Jesus Loves
2. Elevation Worship f/Brandon Lake – I Know A Name
1. Phil Wickham – What An Awesome God (6th week at #1)

New Music This Week:

Blessing Offor – Lift Me Up

Thank you so much for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

Lamenting To God!

On this stressful and heartbreaking anniversary, we took a step back to read devotions from Our Daily Bread Ministries!

Here’s our devotional we talked about for Praise Thursday!

“See, Lord, how distressed I am! I am in torment within, and in my heart I am disturbed.” Lamentations 1:20

“I viewed the opening displays of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York City with curiosity but kept my emotions in check. That changed when we entered the inner exhibit, which the curators have wisely closed off from children and those wanting to shield themselves from the more heartrending images. As I encountered story after story of heartbreak and loss, waves of lament rose within me. This kind of honest crying out to God can help us to grapple with painful atrocities such as what happened on September 11, 2001, or other current-day evil deeds. We look to God for help, hope, comfort, and justice.”– Our Daily Bread.

Reflect: When you witness wickedness, how do you keep your heart tender before God? How might He lead you to pray for those who are hurting today?

You can read more about what we talked about HERE!

Today we played a 15 second clip of a song that we listened to on The Afternoon Drive for Name That Tune!

Come back next week for Name That Tune for a chance to win two $5 gift cards to Watts restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow as we introduce a new song and this week’s count down for The NZ Top 10.

Thank you so much for listening!!

-Gabriella and Ethan 🙂

We’re Stronger Together!!!

National swap ideas day- Share creative and helpful ideas and receive ideas in return. TedTalks, bible studies, read books, and brainstorm! Collaboration and teamwork!

Who Knew fact checks: Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street was orange? He was ordinally orange in the first season then had to switch to green so it would film better, but the storyline in the show was he became covered in swamp moss from a vacation to Swamp Mushy Muddy. 

Who Knew fact checks: Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse voice actors were married? Yes — the longtime voice actors for Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse were married in real life. Wayne Allwine was the official voice of Mickey Mouse from 1977 until his death in 2009. Russi Taylor became the voice of Minnie Mouse in 1986 and continued until her death in 2019. The two met through their work at Disney and married in 1991. So, for nearly two decades, Mickey and Minnie’s voices were also husband and wife off-screen. 

We shared a few quotes to stay motivated through this hard time for America and for Christians.

Isiah 54:10 “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the lord, who has compassion on you period”

Psalm 147:3 “He heals the wounds of every shattered heart.”

Revelation 21:4 “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Who Am I?  

  1. I was born on September 10, 1929, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. 
  1. My father was the head professional and greenskeeper at the local country club. 
  1. I won 62 PGA Tour titles, including seven major championships, including four Masters. 
  1. There is an iced tea–lemonade drink named after me! 
  1. I received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2009. I passed away in 2016. 

I am… Arnold Palmer! Congratulations to Denise of Utica for calling in and winning a $5 gift card to Watts restaurant in Utica!

Thank you so much for listening!

– Gabriella and Ethan

Knox County Junior Fair Sale Sees Historic Results!

WNZR’s Marcy Rinehart talks to Andrea Rees 4H Educator with the OSU Extension Office talks about how she is connected with 4H senior board, and her work behind the scenes of sale day.

It was a historic sale day, where they raised $1,183,636.89!

Andrea continues the discussion about sale day with Sale of Champions raising $85,350.

Andrea explains what happens with totals and why the totals change after the sale. This includes “Add Ons,” or Buyers Club options.

Andrea talks about how they encourage the younger participants to invite buyers in by, meeting them in person or writing letters.

Andrea talks about the positives of moving the Sale Day from Thursday to Friday.

Click HERE to hear the full conversation with Andrea!

Click HERE to hear the actual broadcast of the Knox County Sale of Champions!

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

God’s Love Will ALWAYS Be Powerful!!

We love getting to start our week off with some Monday Motivation for you! We took a look at some encouraging and uplifting songs during The Afternoon Drive! Here’s what we talked about:

We dove in deeper to Megan Wood’s “The Truth” and talked about how our identity is important. Finding ourselves and our identity is important, but many people struggle with insecurities. When you feel unaccepted there is someone that will accept your flaws and all. And Knowing God’s love and Identity in Christ. Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)

“The Truth” by Megan Woods lyric video

We also talked about TobyMac’s song “Speak Life” for Monday Motivation!

It doesn’t matter who you are, how young or old you are, you have the power to make a powerful difference in someone’s life. By simply speaking life to someone, you could be the brightest light to someone’s day and be a part of changing the trajectory of their day! Simply by smiling to someone in passing and saying “hi” could be the biggest difference in someone’s life!

“Speak Life” – TobyMac Music Video

Here is your Verse Of The Week on WNZR!

John 5:14 (NIV)- “Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘see, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.'”

Big Blue stopped at the Fredericktown tomato show September 3rd through the 6th – 

Congratulations to our adult prize winners! Satarah Durbin and Robert VanRiper from Mount Vernon. Thursday’s Winners: Cheryl White of Fredericktown and Lori Wicker of Mount Vernon. Friday’s Winners: Tammy Fraizer and Sharon Farrell from Fredericktown. Saturday’s Winners: Madalyn Hartley of Fredericktown and Larry Styers of Mount Vernon. The winner’s won a prize basket that was valued at $80!

Congratulations to our KIDS Prize Basket Winners! Wednesday’s Winner: Tonya Miller of Fredericktown. Thursday’s Winner: Konner. May from Fredericktown. Friday’s Winner: Graham Dugan of Fredericktown. Saturday’s Winner: Jackson Varner of Mount Vernon. Each basket was valued at $45!
We also gave away an AWESOME student prize backpack for ages 11 – 17 courtesy of WNZR and the Office of Admissions at MVNU. 
Congratulations to our winner – Kaley Dugan of FredericktownKaley won a basket valued at over $225 that had:
many MVNU and WNZR goodies, plus TWO tickets to Sonfest 2025 at MVNU!

For our Mystery Monday, we had another game of Family Feud! Unfortunately it was a stumper, come back next Monday for a chance to win TWO $5 gift cards for Watts restaurant in Utica. Here was our prompt:

Name a reason people wake up in the middle of the night.

Thank you so much for listening!

-Gabriella and Ethan

NZ Top 10 for 9/5/2025

We have the first NZ Top 10 list for September, and we have some new music to look at! Let’s check out this week’s top 10 countdown:

10. Tauren Wells – Let The Church Sing
9. Jon Reddick – No Fear
8. Josiah Queen f/Brandon Lake – Can’t Steal My Joy
7. Micah Tyler – God Did It
6. MercyMe – Oh Death (former #1)
5. Emerson Day – Get Behind Me
4. Zach Williams – Jesus Loves
3. Forrest Frank – Your Way’s Better
2. Elevation Worship f/Brandon Lake – I Know A Name
1. Phil Wickham – What An Awesome God (5th week at #1)

New Music This Week:

Colton Dixon – The Love I Have For You

Rend Collective – Fight Of My Life

Thank you so much for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

Prayer Is POWERFUL!

Today on Praise Thursday, we were on the road with Big Blue at the Fredericktown Tomato Show! Stay up-to-date with the Fredericktown Tomato Show and upcoming events on our website, at wnzr.fm!

It’s Praise Thursday! Today we read a devotional from Our Daily Bread Devotionals about prayer!

Prayer is the biggest thing we can do for someone. Whether you feel the impact or not, our prayer makes a difference. Especially when multiple people are praying for you!

We also talked about how it’s okay to open up about your struggles with godly people you trust that will lift you up and support you! That is such a huge step in conquering whatever you’re going through!

Read more about this devotional by clicking HERE!

We played a 20 second song clip from a song we listened to on The Afternoon Drive!

This week’s Name That Tune song was “Made For More” from Josh Baldwin and Jenn Johnson!

Congratulations to Gina from Warsaw for calling in and figuring out the song title and artist, taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow for New Music Friday and this week’s countdown of The NZ Top 10!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Gabriella and Ethan

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