Meet Lawrence Muleka – DJ name ‘The D.O.C. – The Doc if you like’. Presenter of Breakfast Time, Monday to Friday on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm, as well as a founder member of the exclusive band of presenters who’ve been with the radio station since its inception. The Doc (we do like!) was the most recent guest on our regular Sunday night radio show on the same frequency – The Chanters Lodge Experience with The Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George Da Soulchild. “Why did you invite Lawrence on to the show”? Milli Jam asked me at the start of the programme. “I wanted to know why he’s called ‘The D.O.C – The Doc if you like’.” I replied. “Well, why are you called that”? Milimo asked Lawrence. “I’m not really sure” was the totally unsatisfactory and unbelievable reply! Oh well!…..

It was a good show. We like to turn the tables on the 107.7 fm staff from time to time and Lawrence went straight from reading the news at 20.15 hrs, to the other side of the console at 20.30 hrs as we bombarded him with questions. Was he married? Yes very! How many children did he have? 3 – 2 girls and 1 boy. His eldest had just written her Grade 12. What was his training? Mass communications at ZAMCOM – no surprise there. What tribe did he belong to? Toka-Leya from Chief Mukuni. Lawrence told listeners that he’d spent a lot of time on the Copperbelt when he was younger – his dad had been a civil servant and subject to constant transfers before his retirement. The Doc had come to Livingstone as a DJ having spent time in sales for various companies and had established an outfit called ‘Vinyl Masters’ with Milli Jam – something I didn’t know. He’d joined Radio Mosi-O-Tunya, Livingstone’s very first local radio station, before being poached away to 107.7 fm when it opened in 2006.

The music on the show was good. ‘Miss Right’ by Ne-Yo went down well and Willow Smith’s strange ‘Whip My Hair’ with Nicki Minaj was fine, though not as good as the video by all reports. George chose two tracks by his friend, the late Crystal Shawn – the tender ‘Sweetest Temptation’ and his own duet with Shaun ‘Change For the Better’. George will write a blog about Crystal this week – he died, apparently from heart failure, last week age just 27, three months after his wedding, leaving behind a wife and a six week old baby. Really sad – George and he were very close. ‘Remember When’ by Alan Jackson and ‘The Silence’ by Alexandra Burke seemed to be appropriate follow ups.

The shock of the show came when Milli Jam asked The Doc which international presenter he most admired and Lawrence answered Eamonn Holmes. Eish! I wasn’t impressed! I still suspect it had something to do with Manchester Utd though this was denied at the time. Let me tell you we moved quickly on – after I’d expressed my total disgust! The Doc’s favourite music – hip-hop. Favourite stars? Drake and Eminem. Ambition? To have his own radio station. I had no arguments with that anyway!