Meet Kaylan Johnson of KSquared in North Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaylan Johnson.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Kaylan. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My podcast “KSquared” first started off as a college radio show at St.Johns University located in New York City. I came into college my freshman year knowing that I wanted to have my own radio show, so I looked into the process of how to get one, completed my service hours and passed my board test, and at the start of my sophomore year in college, I finally had my own show along with my two friends who believed and took part in my vision, and became co-hosts. I knew I wanted to use radio as a platform for a black girl like me, attending a predominately white institution in NYC, to not only express my opinions on topics dealing with politics, entertainment and business, but to also use my voice to enlighten, motivate, and unite other students who look like me, by sharing my own personal experiences with different things that we all commonly go through, and give advice on how I conquered them along with my co-hosts.

When we first started off, KSquared was receiving a little bit of buzz around campus as me and my co-hosts; @kiarankelly and @sabiinnee_ would go live from our personal Instagram pages while we were recording live at the station, and everyone would love the topics we bought up and couldn’t wait until the next show. We then decided to create an Instagram page for KSquared and go live from there and we soon started to realize that people from all over began to tune in and then that’s when the podcast came to life. Now we have people who tune in and listen to our podcast from all over the country and even out of the country. In March of this year, KSquared also got recognized and received the “Voice of the People” award from a very prestigious black organization on campus called “Haraya”. Since then, we have been growing and flourishing but of course, we still have ways to go and we still have many more things we want to accomplish for the podcast.

We record new episodes for our podcast on Apple and Spotify every single week and release them on Fridays.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. It’s a process in itself to just get a radio show on campus so it took me a while to complete that, and once I did I knew I also wanted to have a co-host so it took me a while to solidify who I wanted as my co-host as well. Once the show was up and running, I now had to figure out a way to market and promote the show so I created a social media page and designed a logo for KSquared and created fliers and just looked for ways to grow the audience which definitely isn’t easy. We eventually began receiving a lot of buzz but I then started to struggle with having to balance out school while making sure that I still continued to brand and promote KSquared. I also was a student worker at the time so it was a lot for me to handle at first but I looked into ways I could better manage my time and stay organized with everything that I was doing.

Please tell us about KSquared.
KSquared is a podcast where three black college girls give their insight and opinions on the latest trending topics in entertainment, politics, business, and world news. We also discuss college life, relationship/life advice, and we bring up some pretty controversial topics that most people our age would be afraid to discuss and we keep it super real while doing so. We’re mostly known for the spicy topics we bring up, our crazy experiences and storytimes, and the bomb advice and conversations we all have during the show. The 3 of us have total different personalities but the one thing we all have in common is that we have no filter and we’re not afraid to speak our minds. We use our platform not solely for entertainment purposes but to truly enlighten, help, and inspire our listeners through each and every single topic we bring up and I feel like that’s what sets us apart from others.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My friends Kiaran and Sabine who I’ve mentioned before as being my co-hosts, definitely deserve credit for KSquared. Without them, there is no such thing as KSquared. They believed in my vision from the jump and agreed to take part in the show and help KSquared become what we all know it has the potential to become. Each one of them contributes so much in their own individual ways and I know I don’t tell them enough but I truly appreciate them. They put up with me and the long meetings we have but they truly trust the process and I can’t thank them enough for that. Our manager Jonathan Datiz also played a huge role in molding KSquared into what it is today and truly helps us all become better. He was a good friend of my best friend and he heard about the show and wanted to be on board to just help us out especially with the tech side of things because I am not tech-savvy at all, so he really helped in that aspect and he truly critiques us and gives us advice and helps us in things that we can improve on. All of our friends and of course family members play a huge part in KSquared too from showing up to the station, being guests on our show, reposting all of our content and spreading the word in their own ways as well so they deserve a lot of credit also. It truly does take a village.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: ksquaredradio

Image Credit:
Shown in pictures; Kiaran Kelly, Sabine Agnant

Suggest a story: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.