MOUNT VERNON — At 90.9 FM, WNZR has spent four decades connecting with listeners in Knox County and beyond.
But before the station was on the air, it was a dream at Mount Vernon Nazarene College.
In the early 1980s, the community raised money for a transmitter and tower to help turn the vision into a reality. A dedicated studio space in Founders Hall was renovated.
Four decades later, that community support remains an important part of WNZR’s story.
A passion takes root
For Marcy Rinehart, that connection started at Mount Vernon Nazarene College in the fall of 1987 when she began studying broadcasting.
“I did my first radio air shifts in this same building where WNZR is today,” Rinehart said.
After graduation in 1991, she spent six months as a volunteer missionary in Mexico before coming back to Mount Vernon.
In August 1996, she returned to WNZR as station manager. She has held that position ever since.
“I fell in love with Mount Vernon as a college student, and I have fallen more in love with it over the past few decades of my life,” Rinehart said.
Returning to MVNU, where Rinehart found her passion for broadcasting, to teach students and watch them find the same passion is an “amazing blessing,” she said.
From local signal to global reach
Through the years, WNZR has adapted as technology changed and expanded its reach beyond Mount Vernon.
October 1, 2003, marked WNZR’s first online broadcast.
Joe Rinehart, assistant professor of communication and media, director of broadcasting, started at MVNU in 2005. Since then, he and Marcy have helped the station add new ways to reach listeners.
In May 2009, WNZR debuted Big Blue, its mobile remote broadcasting vehicle. The van, synonymous across Knox County with street fairs and festivals, has allowed the station to do work on location.
The next year, WNZR completed a major power increase project.
“We went from about 130 watts to just over 1,300 watts. That allowed us to increase coverage in Knox County … You could (listen) in Richland, Licking and Morrow Counties,” Marcy Rinehart said.
An app created in June 2012 allows anyone, anywhere in the world to listen to the radio’s daily coverage. This allows international students, athletes and students who parents don’t live locally keep up with the news.
“You can be anywhere in the world and be able to connect to our station as long as you have the internet,” Marcy Rinehart said.
More than music
While things have changed over the years, faith has remained central to WNZR programming.
“One of the things that we want, and continue to do, is to be able to give people a place that they can call home that has a positive message,” Joe Rinehart said.
Joe Rinehart said the top reason listeners tune in is for the inspiration.
The station also emphasizes being live and local, offering listeners a place to connect with local programming and music.
“Our whole goal is to encourage and inspire our audience, and let them know that there’s a God out there who loves them and wants a relationship with them,” Joe Rinehart said.
Looking toward the next 40
As WNZR looks ahead, the Rineharts said the station’s goal is to continue meeting listeners wherever they are.
“Our listeners have been faithful. This community has been faithful. The administration has been faithful, and God, overall, has been faithful to meet our needs, whatever they were at that moment, so that we can teach and bring up the next generation of great content creators,” Marcy Rinehart said.
That support, she said, has allowed WNZR to continue serving those that support them and educating the youth.
“We are serving this community, and we are being a lifeline to families every single day, no matter when and how they tune in, and that is such a privilege,” Marcy Rinehart said.
(Here are Cheryl Splain’s photos of WNZR’s 40th anniversary celebration).
