By John Garry

   I suppose anybody working in radio in the 60's and 70's, as did I, knew about Rege Cordic.....he really was (is) a full blown legend.

   When Larry O'Brien and I arrived at WTAE in 1972, about 5 years after Cordic's departure, one of the lines (they're called "Positioning Statements" now) was "O'Brien in the Morning, bridging the Rege Cordic gap". A few years later, when Larry and I had joined up in the morning (March '74), we were able to interview Rege on our show.

   By that time he'd established himself as a Hollywood film fixture, and he laughed about being frequently type-cast as a judge, needing to remember lines like "Overruled!", "Order!", "Objection Sustained", etc. It's fairly well known that Cordic never approached the level of success in Los Angeles radio that he achieved in Pittsburgh, and in connection with that odd circumstance he spoke of Pittsburgh's area-wide personality, i.e., the guys at a bar in the West End talk about the same stuff as the guys in Wexford, Homestead or the South Hills.

   L.A., on the other hand, he said, was like 25 unrelated Monroevilles. As Gertrude Stein said (I think), "There's no 'there' there". The sad aspect of all this is that, as I'm sure you're aware, given the welter of consultants and two or three companies owning every station in town, the likelihood of another Rege Cordic emerging are almost nil. Too bad.

   Larry O'Brien and John Garry never worked at KDKA during their 25-year run in Pittsburgh radio but they had the funny morning show that was most likely to appeal to listeners who grew up with "Cordic & Company."

   O'Brien & Garry were hired separately at WTAE in 1972 (O'Brien for mornings, Garry for afternoons) until a week-long trial run of a two-man show in 1974 led to their being teamed permanently. They soon dominated in the ratings and became part of the Pittsburgh fabric. Listeners followed them to WTAE's FM side, WHTX, in 1983. They also worked at WMXP and then returned to WTAE after it had become a talk station.

   Larry O'Brien, who did a stint as the night-time DJ on Chicago Top 40 powerhouse WCFL in the late 1960s, is now retired and living in Hilton Head, S.C. John Garry continues to live in the Pittsburgh area. He is also retired from broadcasting.

   A compilation CD of O'Brien & Garry comedy bits (Including Lt. Macho and Mr. Science) is available at this website: www.BUYTHISCD.COM (click on "Comedy") or 1-800-444-DDAI.

   John Garry was kind enough to contribute the above thoughts on Rege Cordic and the serious business of doing funny morning radio.

- John Mehno
         

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