PITTSFIELD, MA -- Former Utica and Syracuse jock Nick Caplan has landed on his feet again... with a morning gig in western Massachusetts. And his boss is a fellow former Utica radio programmer.
A poster over on the syracuse.com TV/radio board discovered Caplan's now holding down morning drive duties at Vox-owned oldies "Whoopee" (WUPE-AM/FM), covering the Pittsfield, MA area.
A quick Google search to find the station's website resulted in another CNY connection: the program director at WUPE is Stew Schantz, formerly of the former Clear Channel Utica-Rome cluster. Schantz started as PD and afternoon jock for Kiss-FM (WSKS/WSKU) but eventually added programming responsibilities for Mix 102.5 (WUMX) and WOUR, until he was shown the door in 2005.
Caplan's history in Central New York includes time at WOLF in the 1970s (as documented on the WOLF 1490 Tribute Site), followed by stops in several markets of various sizes around the country. In the late 1990s, he returned to the area as PD and morning host at Regent's Oldiez 96 (WODZ) in Utica. He left that gig for a chance to return to his original call letters, as the first PD and morning host at Movin 100.3/96.5 (WOLF-FM/WWLF-FM) -- but disappeared from the region after the station parted ways with him nearly a year ago.
Photos courtesy wupe.com