Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Morgan and Briana Sandford.
Sara and Briana, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
We became friends about ten years ago while skating for the same roller derby team. We very quickly bonded over our mutual love of skating, Disney, vintage clothing, drag queens, and all things and horror. After a decade of attending conventions, local haunts, and horror movies (accompanied by much trial and error), we thought, “Wouldn’t it be great to start a podcast with some helpful hints for various events? What pass to buy for specific nights, what to do when attending a convention, where to park, how to get advanced screenings of movies, and so on?” Thus, the Squad Ghouls podcast was born. We had intentions of beginning it sooner, but like many others in quarantine, we found ourselves with some free time on our hands.
Has it been a smooth road?
Overall, it’s been fairly smooth. Our biggest challenge has been building our listener base. The keys to success have been self-promotion via our social media channels as well as ensuring that our podcast is available to listeners on every platform known to man. Scheduling has also presented a challenge as things have started to return to normal. We’ve found ourselves becoming busier on weekends and we both work full-time jobs during the workweek. Finding the time to record, promote, build a merch store, and maintain active profiles within the “horror” community has been a struggle. We wish there were more hours in the day!
We’re starting to see the fruits of our labor pay off. We launched at the end of May this year and we already have a few thousand downloads under our belts. We have listeners in 33 states domestically and 18 countries internationally!
Please tell us about Squad Ghouls.
We are a horror themed podcast. Each week we launch two episodes – the first is a particular subject matter such as a haunted city, a haunted tour we’ve taken, cemeteries to visit, convention “know before you go” info, drive-thru haunts that we’ve attended, and we even have a spooky book club! The second episode is a review of a movie or TV series that we discuss.
Most horror podcasts out there are only focused on movies or only focused on ghost stories. We try to discuss a little bit of everything, we’re a one-stop-spooky-shop.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
A huge chunk of our listener base is in Los Angeles, and it’s perfect. Pre-COVID, we planned to review events like Halloween Horror Nights, Six Flags Fright Fest, Knotts Scary Farm, Reign of Terror, and Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor, but our plans have shifted a bit. Thankfully, the creatives in Los Angeles didn’t miss a beat and quickly shifted to drive-thru haunts for the season. We can’t wait to attend and review those! LA is a huge hub for year-round horror activities and the city has been incredibly supportive of film premieres, local haunts, and spooky shops. The rent in some areas (Magnolia Park specifically) has become pretty unreasonable, forcing some businesses to move, but that would be our only criticism.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thesquadghouls.com
- Email: thesquadghouls@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesquadghouls
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesquadghouls
Image Credit:
Photos courtesy of Jarrod Morgan
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