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The Official Blog of WNZR's Afternoon Drive

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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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Thanksgiving Eve 2025!

Today we shared a few Thanksgiving fact checks…quick, clear, and commonly misunderstood points:

✅ Fact Check #1: Did the Pilgrims call it “Thanksgiving”?

False.
The 1621 harvest gathering was not called “Thanksgiving” by the Pilgrims. That term was used for religious days of fasting and prayer, not feasting.

✅ Fact Check #2: Was turkey definitely served at the first Thanksgiving?

Probably false.
The only foods confirmed by historical accounts are venison, corn, and some type of fowl (which could have been duck, goose, or even swan). Turkey is possible but not verified.

✅ Fact Check #3: Did the Pilgrims wear black clothes and big buckled hats?

False.
That is a myth from later art. Pilgrims wore a variety of colors—earth tones, blues, greens—and buckles were not common until decades later.

✅ Fact Check #4: Did Abraham Lincoln make Thanksgiving a national holiday?

True.
In 1863, Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, largely due to the advocacy of writer Sarah Josepha Hale.

✅ Fact Check #5: Was Thanksgiving always on the fourth Thursday of November?

False.
For many decades it was the last Thursday of November.
Franklin D. Roosevelt moved it to the fourth Thursday in 1941 to lengthen the Christmas shopping season.

✅ Fact Check #6: Are cranberries native to North America?

True.
Cranberries originated in North America, and both Native peoples and early colonists used them long before the modern sauce.

✅ Fact Check #7: Does the President really “pardon” a turkey?

True (but ceremonial).
The turkey pardon is a light-hearted tradition that became an official annual practice during the George H. W. Bush administration in 1989.

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We also heard some final totals for the 2025 Operation Christmas Child collection here in Knox County. Jill Haught shared with WNZR that we surpassed our goal by 272 boxes, collecting 5,930 boxes!

  1. I was born November 26, 1939 in Brownsville, Tennessee
  2. I rose to fame in the 1960’s, with a band known for hits like ‘Proud Mary.’
  3. I left that group in 1976 and rebranded as a solo artist, breaking through with my 1984 album, “Private Dancer”
  4. I sold more than 100 million records and earned multiple Grammy Awards
  5. I died in 2023 at my home in Switzerland at 83 years of age.

Congratulations to Jennifer of Fredericktown, who guessed correctly that our Who Am I? artist was Tina Turner! Jennifer wins the $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Thanks for listening!
– Joe

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Christmas Music Right Around The Corner! CeCe Winans Performing on Thanksgiving Day!

As the month of December rolls around, WNZR is getting ready to enter the Holly Jolly ’25! Our artists are also celebrating by releasing brand new music!

Centricity Music is stepping up their A-Game with their artists and Christmas music! Katy Nichole released her first Christmas EP titled The Hope Of Christmas. One of the songs featured on this 5-song EP is Our King Has Come, featuring Matt Maher, which we get to hear on WNZR! Katy wanted listeners to know through these songs that whether you are celebrating with family or grieving the loss of a loved one, you are never alone!

Katy is one of three headlining artists going to WinterJam 2026! You can find tickets to see her live in one of three locations in Ohio on our concert page here!

Jason Gray also has a really cool Christmas song on WNZR, with retro artist Point Of Grace! They’re song is called Comfort and Joy, which we got to hear during the Afternoon Drive today!

Jason and Point Of Grace are taking this song and many more live with them on their Comfort and Joy Tour! They will be in Dayton, Ohio on Sunday, December 14 at 7PM! Ticket information for this concert can be found here!

More info about Centricity, their artists and their Christmas music can be found here!

If you’re someone who watches football on Thanksgiving Day with your family, you will be watching CeCe Winans perform the National Anthem at the Lions vs Packers game on FOX at 1PM EST!

This especially hits home for CeCe, as she is from Detroit! She is expressing much excitement as she remembers Detroit Lions games being played all the time at her home.

More information about the game on Thanksgiving Day can be found here!

CeCe will also be coming to Ohio with her More Than This Tour in the Spring of 2026! She’ll be stopping by at The Naz Church in Grove City, Ohio on Thursday, April 30 at 7PM! You can find ticket information on our concert page here!

This week’s lyrics are a stumper from last week, so that means these lyrics are worth two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Here were this week’s 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 ever seen

These lyrics were from Jordans by Blessing Offor! Congratulations to Brylan from Mount Vernon for calling in and correctly guessing the song title and artist, taking home two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Tune in tomorrow during The Afternoon Drive with Joe Rinehart as he goes over some fun Thanksgiving “Who Knew’s” for Who Knew Wednesday!

Thank you for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

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It Seems Impossible Until It’s Done!!!

On this Monday Motivation we talked about some inspirational strictures for you and Thanksgiving in a Christian point of view! We also took a look at some encouraging and uplifting songs during The Afternoon Drive! Here’s what we talked about:

Gabriella’s Monday Motivation was Build a Boat by Colton Dixon– Faith and obedience: faith requires action, just as Noah built the ark before any rain came. Preparation for the future: preparing for tough times and “storms” that may come in life, even if you don’t see them yet. Trust in divine guidance: God will help you navigate the “currents underneath”. Perseverance: stand up for your beliefs and do “whatever it takes,” even when others think it’s “lunacy”. Hope: The song provides a message of hope that even in a “desert place,” God’s promises will be fulfilled.

Joe’s Monday Motivation was Thank You by The Katinas– With Thanksgiving coming up this week it’s important to understand what God has done for YOU. We should be more thankful for the GIVER than the GIFT! 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”. Philippians 4:6: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”.

WNZR is getting ready for the holidays and that includes getting Christmas Music ready for you! We are currently playing some special songs for Thanksgiving and debuting some new songs for Christmas. Then join us for WNZR’s Holly Jolly 25 from December 1st through Christmas Day! 25 straight days with ALL Christmas Songs!

The leaves that Joe raked over the weekend 🙂 (Below)

Name something the cook might stress about on Thanksgiving. 

  1. The turkey being cooked properly (43) 
  1. Not having enough food (22) 
  1. Spilling something (15) 
  1. Running out of a dish (10) 
  1. Guests not enjoying the meal (10) 

Congratulations to Linda of Mount Vernon for guessing the top two answers correctly and taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Tune in Tomorrow for Artist Newsday and Gametime Tuesday with Ethan and Joe!

Thanks for listening!

– Gabriella and Joe

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NZ Top 10 for 11/21/2025

What a week! We have a few new placements on the Top 10! Here is this week’s countdown:

10. Leanna Crawford – Honest

09. Elevation Worship & Brandon Lake – I Know A Name

08. Lauren Daigle – Let It Be A Hallelujah

07. Seph Schlueter – Won’t Start Now

06. Hope Darst – Mighty Name Of Jesus

05. Phil Wickham – What An Awesome God

04. Crowder – STILL

03. Jeremy Camp – No Survivors

02. Jamie MacDonald – Left It In The River

01. Josiah Queen & Brandon Lake – Can’t Steal My Joy (4th week at #1)

New Music This Week:

Danny Gokey – The Moment The Whole World Changed

Sanctus Real & Sarah Kroger – Hope Begins

Jason Gray & Point of Grace – Comfort and Joy

Jason and Point of Grace are coming to Ohio with this song as the headline for their tour! They will be at the Sinclair Community College, on Centerville Campus, in Dayton, Ohio on Sunday, December 14th!

Ticket information for their Comfort & Joy Tour can be found here!

This is the last regular NZ Top 10 of the year! The Holly ’25 starts December 1st when WNZR goes to full Christmas music until the December 25th!

Thank you for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

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