Good Luck, WHCL: An Interview with Grammy Winner Chappell Roan
“We occasionally went to concerts, but not frequently, and rarely saw bands we weren’t already fans of,” Lane recalled. “So we got very lucky to see such an ascendant talent!”
Fast forward two years. Lane is now the program director at WHCL, and Welch and Mangold are DJs. Programming at the campus radio station has just resumed after the pandemic forced a hiatus, and the trio decide to host a show called The Jubilee Line: Best Sounds in the Underground. The series would include interviews with up-and-coming, or “underground,” artists.
Lane remembered being impressed with Chappell Roan and decided to reach out to her through her label at the time, Atlantic Records, and soon scored an interview. The artist spent 20 minutes chatting with the WHCL crew about everything from how she built her following to how she achieves the sound she’s after.
No one at the time could have imagined that Chappell Roan would take home the 2025 Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Nor might they have guessed that Lane would continue in the radio business. He’s now the news producer for WBUR, the NPR station in Boston.
