The broadcaster who sings

Willie Soko used to be one household name during the 1990s and early years in the new millennium.

He had an affable voice that glued listener’s ears to their radios in their homes. He was also a musician during the break of the millennium.

Born Willie Dan Soko to Wilfred Samuel Soko and Ruth Mgabadere, but he was raised by his stepmother Margaret Soko in a family of 11 in Simeon Mvula Village in Mzimba, he never thought he would one day become a broadcaster.

Five-year-old Willie moved to Blantyre after his father was transferred to the city. They lived in Chitawira. Around the same time, he started kindergarten.

He remembers most of the people he shared class with in kindergarten and one of the names he mentions, Joy Mkulichi, who he later, in 1976, started primary school together before being separated and reunited years later at St Pius Secondary School.

But his passion for broadcasting was triggered when he was eight years old at a Christmas Fun-ride during which he performed. What amazed him was that Benson Tembo is the one who recorded them.

“I remember that moment vividly. I even remember the wristwatch he was wearing, it was a red digital wrist watch which was fashionable then,” said Willie.

He confesses that from that moment he started eyeing a job in radio that during Nthawi ya Ana programme, which featured his school when he was in Standard six at Chitawira Primary School hosted by Chaipa Hiwa, Willie admitted that he wanted to become a radio presenter when he grew up.

After completing MSCE from Njamba Secondary School, he joined Polytechnic Management Centre after which he joined MBC Radio in December 1994 as an assistant announcer.

“During those days, MBC was employing announcers not only based on qualifications, but also their ability to write and their fluency in English and Chichewa. I was lucky because I grew up in a family where my father could not fluently speak Chichewa so he would speak English most of the times.

“So, we learnt how to speak the Queen’s language at home. I was also in the debate team at Njamba Secondary School, I remember we earned a third place in a debate while Chichiri and Blantyre Secondary School came first and second place respectively,” says Willie.

After three months of training at MBC, a nervous Willie went on air for a live broadcast of Nkhani Mwachidule, but his mentor, the highly rated radio legend Davis Mussa, who trained him intensively, was on the other side of the glass cubicle, giving him cues and prompting him to keep his cool whenever he seemed to lose his composure.

“Davis Mussa is one of the people that helped me in my broadcasting career. Every day, I would go to his office to read books and listen to how other announcers had done it before,” he recalls.

Willie Soko has also been known in music circles for some time, but he says the genesis was at St Columba Youth Organisation, where he started singing in a church band.

“I remember I made a guitar using a gallon of oil and my father destroyed it only to surprise me with a new acoustic guitar the same evening. He is the one that taught me how to play the guitar,” he recalls.

He adds that besides the training at the church, he used to attend choral workshops at Chancellor College in Zomba with his friend Kajowola Phiri, who he later used to co-author songs with inspiration from Mjura Mkandawire, who usually made presentations during the workshops.

“We used to recreate Mjura’s compositions and I remember one time Kajowola came home telling me that he had written a song. I told him that I had also written one and we shared and found out that we used the same staff notation. It was because we were just recreating the same person’s songs,” confesses Willie.

Willie, together with his siblings Chuma, Lameck, Amos and sister Charity, formed a music group called Comforters in Christ. The members of the band joined Blantyre Pentecost Church and were the first members in the church’s praise team.

Other members joined in, notable among them being Rudo Mkukupa, George Misinde and Tim Dadorde.

The team was inspired by Hosana Integrity from USA and it became a blueprint for most Pentecostal praise teams in the country.

Willie, who worked at MBC for 19 years, is now working for Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (Macra) as a broadcasting monitor. He is a born again Christian married to Winnie Mlanga with four children.