Bodega Brad’s Brooklyn Adventures

Spinning Fitness / photo by Nicole Merino

Everyone’s heard of Bodega Brad – even if you think you haven’t. If you’ve ever found yourself perusing through local FM radio stations in the Big Apple, or on Sirius XM, you were bound to come across his work.

Behind the catchy jockey name is Brad Hoelscher, a Battle Creek, Michigan native who has called Brooklyn his home since 1998. Having grown up on everything from R&B to Motown to Hip-Hop, Brad credits his music styles to the culture of his hometown and its surrounding areas. 

Brad says his main reason for heading to the big city was out of pure boredom. “I DJ’d every night to the same crowd and the same music. No offense to them or the music, but I had bigger ambitions,” Brad told Brooklyn Roads. 

He first got into the DJ scene at a young age back home, where he and his best friend prided themselves on having every Hip Hop and Party cassette sold in stores. If someone didn’t have the music they did, which was often, Brad and his friends then became the DJ. 

On The Street /photoy by Nicole Merino

“We had no clue what we were doing as there wasn’t anyone in our town to help us, but we DJ’d in our basements, sharing the equipment and practicing, until I bought my own.”

Spinning at the Beach / photo by Nicole Merino

He then went on to play various events through college.  His first big break was as a promotions kid at 103.5-FM-KTU, with whom he credits radio jock “Broadway Bill Lee” for soon after moving to Bushwick.  Brad says Brooklyn has influenced everything about him, including his name. The radio name Bodega Brad stems from his first ten years in the borough, as he lived above a bodega.

“All I had to do was walk out of my apartment and I’d see 100’s of things I’ve never encountered before. We were broke as hell, but it didn’t matter….we were hustlin’ and living life to the fullest” . He found jobs anywhere he could in order to make things work, until his next major breakthrough with radio jock Sean “Hollywood” Hamilton at KTU. Hamilton asked Brad to be his personal mixshow DJ on the syndicated show “The Remix Top 30 Countdown.”  DJing is one of Brad’s greatest passions, as he says the driving force behind the music he makes is “to make and play the music that I like … which doesn’t always work out.  But if you’re not having fun, you shouldn’t be doing it.”