Elias ‘E-Vibes’ Limwanya


It’s no good pretending that all was well on the latest edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with The Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George Soulchild, our regular Sunday night radio show airing at 20.30 hrs on 107.7 fm, Zambezi Radio, Livingstone’s popular local radio station. Why? Well three of us, including our Guest Elias Limwanya, pictured above, are Arsenal supporters and we were still in a state of shock following our team’s defeat in the Carling Cup Final about half an hour before we went on air. Even George Soulchild’s team Liverpool had lost. Anyway, we all tried our best!

Elias is better known as ‘E-Vibes’ and is a full time presenter, disc jockey and newscaster on Zambezi fm, for whom he’s worked for almost 3 years. He told listeners that he’d had a tough upbringing losing both his parents in a road accident on the Copperbelt in 1998 when he was 8. He’d been brought up by an uncle, completing his Grade 12 at Linda Secondary School – our second consecutive weekly Guest educated at that Livingstone school I pointed out. How had he got the name ‘E-Vibes’? We wondered, and Elias explained that George Soulchild was the person who’d helped him find a good name to use on radio. In fact it transpired that George had helped Elias at almost every stage of his career and that was a source of pride for us on the show!

Still single, Elias told listeners he’d never been bungee jumping and had no intention of doing so and had not walked with lions but would quite like to do that. His main work project at the moment was co-hosting the Breakfast Show on 107.7 fm with George Soulchild which he was enjoying. He’d been on Facebook since 2008 and was a regular contributor. What did he think of Arsenal losing that vital match? He was quite philosophical about it and said he was looking forward to their upcoming FA Cup replay and of course the return leg against Barcelona in the Champions League.

We played Adele’s number one UK smash hit ‘Someone Like You’ at the top of the show back to back with Ne-Yo’s ‘Give Me Everything’. We dropped C.R.I.$.I.$ featuring Nalu ‘I Wanna Live My Life’ – informing any listeners who didn’t already know that C.R.I.$.I.$ had won the best international act at the recent BEFFTA awards in the USA. Moving on to Exile’s ‘In Love With You’ and Alesha Dixon’s ‘Breath Slow’ the mood in the studio was slowly improving, the music taking hold. Lady Saw featuring Eve ‘He Is At My House’ and Wizkid’s smash ‘Holla At Ya Boy’ rocked the house. We were happy at that point to get a call from Swithin Haangala the owner of 107.7 fm saying how much he was enjoying the show, even if we weren’t sure that we were! ‘Why did he call now”? I asked the guys. George quipped “he heard the track ‘Holla At Ya Boy’ and decided it was time to give you a holla!” We laughed!

I had a surprise when we offered a prize of a dinner for two at Chanters Lodge to the first listener to text us Elias’s radio name. One of the many people to send us an answer, (some before I’d even finished asking the question!) was a former Ridgeway Hotel worker and Ridgeway Raiders (our football team) goalkeeper – Emmanuel Malunga. Seeing goalkeepers were very much on the mind of we Gunners, for all the wrong reasons, we gave him the prize!

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