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An Eternal Hope And Joy!

We took some moments to take a step back and breathe for Praise Thursday on The Afternoon Drive. We read devotionals from Our Daily Bread Ministries!

Here is the devotional we read and talked about today!

The author of the devo we read today talked about how she and her friends tried to go to a restaurant, but had to go back because it was full. Disappointments like that will happen in this life, but even in situations when we feel upset or down, we can take heart knowing that in the end, it is just temporary. As believers and followers of Jesus and our sights set on Heaven, we can sit on the edge of our seat every day, awaiting what God has for us in His plan, and not worry if Heaven will be too full for us. There is room for everyone who says yes to Jesus!

In Revelation 21:2, John saw “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem” which shone of God’s glory. As believers and followers of Jesus, we know that in “the new Jerusalem”, there will be no more fear, sorrow, pain, or sin! Our hope is sealed in the fact that Jesus paid our debts and sins on the cross once and for all, and that His resurrection from death shows that we are not in our sins and that are hope is not empty! In the end, Jesus has already won!

You can read more about the devo we read today by clicking HERE!

Today we played a 20 second clip of a song we listened to on The Afternoon Drive for Name That Tune!

This Week’s Name That Tune song was “If I Got Jesus” from Ben Fuller!

Congratulations to Chris from Gambier 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 on Friday as we check out a new song being introduced to WNZR and this week’s countdown for The NZ Top 10!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Ethan Hershberger

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Bananas And Tug Of War!

We got to learn more about National Banana Lovers and National Tug Of War Day for Who Knew Wednesday on The Afternoon Drive!

If you love bananas, today is your day! These yellow, curved berries are loved all around the world, and feature in many meals, snacks, and smoothie drinks as well!

How can you celebrate this day? Well quite simply, you can enjoy one with a friend or with family! Or you could watch a fun movie that’s jungle or banana themed! Curious George would be a great option to watch with kids, and to get them to eat their bananas alongside George!

Read more about National Banana Lovers Day by clicking HERE!

Today, we celebrate a game we grew up playing, Tug Of War!

Did you know Tug Of War was a sport that was professionally played in the Olympics? It was a sport for 20 years (1900-1920), and had teams of six on each side!

How can you celebrate this day? Well, simply grab some friends and/or family and enjoy a friendly, competitive game of tug of war and test your strength!

Learn more about National Tug Of War Day by clicking HERE!

Here are your five biographical hints about our famous mystery person!

  1. I was born today, August 27th in 1908, and lived until January 22nd, 1973 to be 64 years of age.
  2. I was a politician, but before that, I worked as a teacher at a Mexican-American school in Texas.
  3. I was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1937 and later served as a U.S. Senator from Texas, where I became Senate Majority Leader in the late 50s.
  4. I became U.S. president in 1963 after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
  5. My presidency was known for landmark legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Great Society programs aimed at reducing poverty.

I am… President Lyndon B. Johnson!

Congratulations to Ester from Mount Vernon for calling in and guessing him, taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow as we take some time to slow down, breathe, listen to worship music, and read some devotionals on Praise Thursday!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Ethan Hershberger

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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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Look At What HE has done!!

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:

The enemy loves to bring up our sins and mistakes, whether past or present, trying to make us believe we’re too far gone, and that we’ve messed everything up. It messes with our heads and brings us down. The enemy tries to make us forget what Jesus did for us on the cross and make us think that God can’t save us.

However, the truth is that God does make all things new, and He has erased our sins by sending His one and only Son, Jesus, to die on the cross on behalf of us for our sins! We took a listen to Tasha Layton’s Look What You’ve Done and what this song says. Instead of letting ourselves tell ourselves “Look what you’ve done”, “You messed everything up”, let’s turn our eyes to Jesus, and thank Him for what He’s done, which was and is enough to save us and make us clean! Whatever you’ve done, Jesus is bigger than it, and He is enough! Look what He’s done on the cross to make you new!

1 Peter 2:24 (NIV) “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”

Here is your verse of the week!

Psalms 16:7 (NIV) “I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.”

We’ve got another Family Feud-style question for Mystery Monday! Here was your prompt for this week:

Past or present, name a famous wall.

  1. Great Wall of China (51 votes)
  2. Berlin Wall (35)
  3. Vietnam Wall (10)
  4. The Wailing Wall (2)

Congratulations to Jean from Mount Vernon for being the first to call in and correctly guess the top two answers, taking home a $5 gift card 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 Ethan

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NZ Top 10 for 8/22/2025

There’s a new one on the NZ Top 10 this week! Let’s check out this week’s countdown:

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

New Music Debuting This Week:

Jamie MacDonald – Left It In The River

Anne Wilson – God Story

Forrest Frank – Lemonade

Thank you so much for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

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Terrian’s First Big Headline Tour!

On Artist News Day today, we talked about all that’s happening when it comes to your artists here on WNZR! We went over a life update from Natalie Grant, Anne Wilson appearing on Morgan Wallen’s tour, and Terrian’s first tour where she will be headlining it!

Terrian is coming to Lakewood, Ohio with special guest Aaron Cole along with her!

Terrian has worked so hard with her music career! She got the incredible opportunity to be a part of TobyMac’s Diverse City Band for almost eight years! She went on tour with him as a backup vocalist, and appeared on three of Toby’s past records as a backup vocalist on The Elements, and then featuring as an artist on Life After Death and Heaven On My Mind. After being a part of TobyMac’s Diverse City Band for nearly eight years, she was able to start her career as a solo artist, getting signed to Gotee Records, getting to release beloved songs like Honestly, We Just Need Jesus, He Sees You, and Big God.

She’s worked so hard to the point where she gets to headline her own tour, called The Big God Tour! And if you want to see her headline her concert live with Aaron Cole, you can grab tickets through our website by clicking HERE!

Natalie Grant has been resting from releasing music and touring to be with her children before they graduate from college! As college starts up again this year, Natalie will be bidding farewell to one of her twin daughters as she sends her off to college. She says she appreciates every prayer that has come her family’s way, so be praying for Natalie and her family as they enter this new season of life!

God has done it again, as He uses Christian artists as a vessel for His glory and His Kingdom! Anne Wilson recently got to open up for Grammy-winning artist Morgan Wallen, who, to put it in perspective, is the “Taylor Swift” of country music!

Anne was so excited to share her faith and her Jesus to an audience that filled a football stadium in Seattle Washington on July 26th and 27th. We’re seeing God use artists like Anne to reach people who may have never heard about Jesus before, and you never know all the seeds that may have been planted as Anne worshipped God on those nights at Morgan Wallen’s concerts! She given God the glory for all she has gotten to do to share His message and share His love!

We took some lyrics from a song we listened to on The Afternoon Drive today! Here were the 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

Today’s lyrics were a stumper! Tune in next week and be the first caller to guess what song this is from and who sings this song! If you do, you’ll win two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Xander and Ethan

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NZ Top 10 for 8/15/2025

There’s a new one on the NZ Top 10 this week! Let’s check out this week’s countdown:

10. ELEVATION RHYTHM f/Gracie Binion – Goodbye Yesterday
9. TobyMac – a lil Church (spent 2 weeks at #1)
8. Emerson Day – Get Behind Me
7. Zach Williams – Jesus Loves
6. Jon Reddick – No Fear
5. Elevation Worship f/Brandon Lake – I Know A Name
4. Forrest Frank – Your Way’s Better
3. Micah Tyler – God Did It
2. MercyMe – Oh Death (spent 1 week at #1)
1. Phil Wickham – What An Awesome God (2nd week at #1)

You can listen to Phil Wickham’s #1 song here!

No New Music Added This Week!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Ethan Hershberger

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God Couldn’t Love You Any More Than He Does Right Now!!!

We took some time to slow down and take some moments to breathe on Praise Thursday today. We listened to some worship music, talked about a powerful message from one of MercyMe’s songs and read some devos out of Our Daily Bread Devotionals!

We listened to MercyMe’s song Best News Ever during The Afternoon Drive today. We talked about the message of this song, which is that what Jesus did on the cross was and is enough! He has been pleased with you the day you called His Name, and there’s nothing you can do to ruin that.

Something we as believers try to do is try to earn our grace, or earn our attention from God. Something we need to realize is that we need to stop trying so hard, and just accept the truth that the cross was, is, and always will be enough. “What if I were the one to tell you that the fight’s already been won?” There’s nothing more you can or need to do to earn His grace. Believe the cross was enough and that as you accept Jesus as your Savior, you are changed, made holy, righteous, and redeemed!

We looked in a new Our Daily Bread devo book for these next three months! The one we looked at today talked the boundaries, and how they set us more free than we think!

A study was made by architects who would provide a fence for a preschool. What the architects noticed was that when there was no fence, the students would stay close to the building, and stay a little secluded. However, when they built a fence, the students enjoyed all of the area that was in the fence, not just the little area next to the building.

We see here that boundaries set a greater sense of freedom! And we see how God sets boundaries with the Ten Commandments, which He promised would provide good, quality life within these boundaries. We also saw Jesus say in John 8:31-32, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” We see that boundaries are for our good and provide us freedom, rather than restraining us!

To read the entire devo on this topic, click HERE!

Today we played a 20 second song clip from a song we listened to on The Afternoon Drive for Name That Tune!

Our song today was Jesus Loves from Zach Williams!

Congratulations to Alex from Howard for calling in and guessing the song title and artist correctly, taking home a $5 gift card to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow as we count down the top 10 songs in Christian music on the NZ Top 10, and as we take a look at new music getting added to WNZR!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Ethan Hershberger

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Seph Schlueter and Left Hands!

Today on Who Knew Wednesday, we learned more about Seph Schlueter and International Lefthanders Day!

Who knew Seph Schlueter spent some time in Knox County? Before he moved to Nashville to pursue his music career, Seph was a worship leader at Damascus Church in Centerburg! On top of that, his wife, Abby Schlueter, lived in Mount Vernon, and Seph told the WNZR crew in an airport that he loved going to Happy Bean when he was down in Knox County. So just remember whenever you go to Happy Bean, one of your favorite artists has stepped foot in one of your favorite local coffee shops too!

We learned today that our very own Joe Rinehart is left-handed! As a matter of fact, Joe is kind of ambidextrous, as he eats and writes with his left hand, but catches and throws with his right hand!

A way that you can celebrate this day, if you’re right-handed, is to try eating with your left hand at dinner, or try to write left-handed! Or, you can give your left-handed friend or family member a big empathetic hug for having to buy slightly more expensive scissors!

To read more about International Lefthander Day, click HERE!

Today we played a game of Who Am I? which was a stumper from last week, so this one is worth two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica!

  1. I was born today, August 6th, in 1965; I’m married to my wife Valarie and we have two children!
  2. I am a follower of Jesus, as well as a philanthropist! I founded the Carver Academy, which is a private school in San Antonio, which was later turned into a charter school network.
  3. I was selected as the #1 pick in the 1987 NBA Draft.
  4. I didn’t join the Spurs until 1989 due to my commitment to serve in the U.S. Navy for two years, where I got nicknamed “The Admiral”.
  5. I was a member of the iconic 1992 “Dream Team”, which was the first U.S. Olympic basketball team to feature active NBA players.

I am… David Robinson!

Congratulations to Jay from Mount Vernon for being the first to call in and correctly guess him correctly, taking home two $5 gift cards to Watts Restaurant in Utica! Tune in tomorrow as we take some time to slow down to read some devotionals and listen to some worship music on Praise Thursday!

Thank you so much for listening!
– Joe and Ethan

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