Meet 22 year old Jay Hillz (above) aka Joseph Siamilemba Chibula, also known as ‘Night Rider’ to listeners on Zambezi 107.7 fm who tune in when he hosts the ‘graveyard shift’ between midnight and 05.00 hrs, four nights per week. A tough assignment, all of us in the studio agreed, when Joseph guested on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Kaufela last Sunday night. ‘The Experience’ is the hour long weekly radio show sponsored by Chanters Lodge airing on Zambezi fm every Sunday evening at the more ‘civilized’ time of 20.30 hrs. Milli Jam and I reminisced about how we had ‘met’ in 2007 when he himself was host on 107.7 fm at night and I was bed ridden for two months with a foot infection sending him requests in the early hours. That’s actually how ‘The Experience’ was born. “Couldn’t do it these days” said an aging Milli Jam!

Joseph told listeners that he had been given the name Mr Hills by classmates and neighbours when he was living near a gentleman of that name, people saying they resembled each other. When he was considering a name for radio he added the ‘J’ for Joseph and the name Jay Hillz was born! He had been with Zambezi fm since 2011 and was still employed on a ‘part time’ basis. He had joined the station following an advertisement on the station’s ‘Fan Club’ progamme looking to recruit presenters. Joseph had auditioned and considered himself lucky to have been given a chance. Asked who was was his greatest influence on radio he named Elias E-vibes Kassim Limwanya from 107.7 fm whom he said had been a great mentor to him and ‘always told him where he was going wrong’.

The music on the show was up to our usual high standard. We opened with Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Tonight I’m Getting Over You’ back to back with The 1975’s smash ‘Chocolate’. George dropped ‘Animal Farm’ a scorching new local track from Pilato ft Petersen – political dynamite we all agreed. We also featured tracks from Roberto, Rita Ora, Iyaz, Banky W and Key$ha. Our oldie of the week was a local track from Shatel and the prize of a dinner for two at Chanters Lodge was quickly snapped up by one lucky listener.

Joseph told listeners that he loved football and that he was an avid Liverpool supporter – this pleased Kaufela and we were all happy for one reason or another, as Liverpool had beaten Spurs. Jo’s favourite music is hip-hop and R&B – he listed his ‘best’ artists as Pompi (Zambian) and Sibu (South African). He had never been Bungee Jumping! (Wise young man) but he was looking forward to being able to do some of the tourist activities in Livingstone as time went on.

Asked if he was married, Jo replied cautiously that he was ‘in a relationship’. In ten years’ time Joseph said he would like to be working behind the studio as a producer and we wished him the best of luck.