There was drama at the start of the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George ‘Kaufela’ da Soulchild, our weekly Sunday night radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station, as the studio was plunged into darkness by a power cut – not a particularly unusual occurrence in Livingstone. After some of us had been obliged to climb the six flights of stairs to get to work (no Zesco – no lifts), we were lucky that our Guest of the week – Lewis Simango (above) – is technically gifted and was well able to start up the studio’s stand by generator. We were lucky! Even so, the genset only operates the system and the transmission so for the first half of the show we did it in the dark!

Lewis told listeners that he is a part time presenter on 107.7 fm and a born again Christian. He has a show featuring gospel music every Sunday called 426. “Why that name?” I wondered. “Because the show airs from 14 – 18 hrs” Lewis replied. “Ah!” I said, feeling dull and knackered from climbing the stairs! Lewis explained that he mostly features gospel music on his show but that he also has a certain man of God from the church of ‘Lion of Judah’ who comes in to preach. “Do you think there’s too much religious broadcasting on this station?” Milli Jam asked. “Certainly not!” the unsurprising reply.

We don’t play gospel music on our show even though we also broadcast on Sundays. On this edition we featured tracks from Showtek, James Arthur, Zone Fam and Kaufela ft Mbototo. Milli Jam played Sean Paul and Bruno Mars. Our oldie of the week was Katie Melua’s ‘Closest Thing To Crazy’ but no-one won the prize. There was one forlorn text message saying ‘these oldies are so hard for us youth’! Seeing that the prize had been won for the previous three weeks running we  disputed this! My pick of the week was Ne-Yo featuring Future with ‘Luxurious’. “Everyone’s featuring Future’ said George. We closed with Sean Paul’s hit ‘Turn It Up’.

Lewis made us laugh when Milli Jam asked what sport he liked and his reply was ‘wrestling’. “Ah!” said Milli Jam “and who’s your favourite wrestler?”. “Well” said Lewis “despite my religion it’s The Undertaker”! Lewis professed no interest in UK soccer. Our Guest said his greatest influence in terms of his show was Jo Austin, and that he had been with 107.7 for almost a year. He loved broadcasting and had joined the station as a result of starting early as a member of the station’s fan club. He also revealed that he is a musician himself, soon hoping to release his first album. He is also an events manager with Livingstone Lighthouse, and so he makes ends meet. He is a single man, Lozi by tribe, “pure Lozi” he said. He had been educated at David Livingstone High School and was undertaking further studies by distance learning.

As the show came to an end, Lewis rushed off the shut down the generator and switch back on to mains power – technical indeed!