By DALE MADISON

Brad Casey has been a name synonymous with the publication business in South Florida for over 20 years. Having started out with his deep, dulcet voice on AM radio (yes, it was in the Stone Age) Casey quickly rose to the top of his game in broadcast.

Then a new offer came along that made him think of a career change. Hot Shots, yes Hot Shots, publisher Jason Bell approached Casey and offered him the position of Sales Manager for the new publication.

“At that time, there were maybe 4 gay bars in the city and several gay friendly establishments and that was about it” recounts Casey.

“I took on the position as it was something new, I mean, sales is sales whether it’s cars, real estate or advertising.

I did well. But after about a year and a half, I decided if I am going to do this, why not do it for me?” Casey says. His first publication was Scoop, which started out as just a one page, mimeographed newsletter. “I had some content on the first page writing basically about what was going on in the bars in town.

On the flip side, I printed business card size ads which most I ran for free. Then the paper began to really catch on. In the beginning, Jason Bell was printing the Scoop for me. The first time I went in to get the paper printed I asked Jason, “How much is this gonna cost me?”

“I don’t know,” said Bell. “How much do you have on you?

“$52.00,” I said.

“Then it’s going to cost you $52.00.” That’s the way things were done in those days.

Scoop was born at that moment. “Everything was going great and I started getting requests from bars in Miami, so, I then started Scoop Magazine. I found a graphic artist by the name of Bill Huelsman, who many of you probably know is the other half to Terry DeCarlo, public relations director at Broward House, to help with the creation of ads.

In 2 years, I went from just a newsletter to an 8 ½ x 11” full color, glossy publication. Our first edition was only 32 pages and we kept growing. I kept it local, and gossipy.

I remember recruiting Pompano Bill for photos and I remember another young (at the time) entrepreneur by the name of Dale Madison who started writing a column called “Pinkies Up” that dealt with local events. Along with others such as Interior Designer, Joe Gallant and Mrs. Beasley, we grew the publication,” Brad beams.

Then, according to Casey, the economy began to turn. One of his Miami Sales reps named Tony Lambreau teamed up with photographer Jose Antonio to start a new magazine named Outlook, taking advertisers from his list of clients.

That’s when Casey received an offer “I couldn’t refuse” from his former employer, Jason Bell, now of HotSpots! Magazine. “I was offered the chance to stay on for a while which I did, and then finally decided it was time to move on,” states Casey.

“It has been a wonderful 40 years here in the South Florida media. I will say this, “You have not heard the last of Brad Casey.”