WCDO’s Nate Lull is soon to be just local sports personality Nate Lull.
Lull, a 2003 Gilbertsville-Mount Upton graduate who has been the sports director for the Sidney radio station since 2014, announced the move on social media Friday, June 19. He said he will continue with his local sports website, natelull.com, as well as The Nate Lull Podcast, and his social media efforts.
Lull covered high school sports in Chenango, Delaware and Otsego counties for WCDO. When he expressed interest at the start of the decade in doing similar work for a sports website, station officials encouraged him to develop the project on his own.
“Over the last several years, what started as a few side projects has grown into something much bigger than I ever imagined,” Lull said in his statement. “Thanks to your incredible support, those efforts have continued to expand and create opportunities I never expected. Eventually, there comes a point where you realize it is time to take the next step. As exciting as that is, it is also a little scary. But I believe this is the right time to fully commit to what I have built and see just how far it can go.”
In a follow-up interview with The Daily Star on Friday, Lull said he wanted to thank his bosses at the radio station and assure the community he wasn’t leaving. He and his wife, Amanda, and their daughters, Josie (age 3) and Andi (10 months) are staying in Gilbertsville.
Lull said he plans to expand and enhance his online platforms, including broadcasting games.
“I am pretty much going to do the same things I have been doing,” he said. “I am looking at this as an opportunity to set the bar as high as I can. If I fall on my face, well, then that’s what I will do.”
Lull said he is leaving on good terms with the station owners and management. He is staying until the end of June to help his replacement, Downsville graduate Ashton Townsend, and said he is excited to see Townsend thrive in the job.
“They’ve been very good to me,” Lull said. “That made the decision harder. But I am happy for Ashton. He was a guy I enjoyed covering and interacting with when he was in school. He would come up to me to let me know he wanted to do what I was doing. He did very well at school at SUNY Brockport, working at the college radio station and calling games. I think it is something where he will bring a new perspective to the position and do a great job.”
As for his new/old job, Lull called the change a pro-active step toward a new beginning, the end of a chapter but not the completion of his story locally.
Lull said he will be releasing a podcast in the next few days with more details and answering all the questions he has been getting privately.
A 2007 SUNY Geneseo graduate, Lull worked his way into radio calling Syracuse Crunch games while getting his Master’s at Syracuse. He did play by play for Canisius University and was considering a career in hockey broadcasting before WCDO’s Craig Stevens offered him the opportunity to come home and do local sports broadcasting.
Stevens did not respond to an email request for comment Friday.
Lull still competes athletically as well. He runs marathons and ultra-marathons and is a regular in the Gen. Clinton Canoe Regatta. He coaches a girls summer basketball team, the Armadillos. Since 2023, he has raised money for and given out the Nate Lull Scholarship, with more than $50,000 awarded in three years.