Cordic was born in the Hazelwood neighborhood of Pittsburgh and attended Central Catholic High School He started in radio as a staff announcer and substitute sportscaster at WWSWAM1 When morning host Davey Tyson left the station in 1948 Cordic was one of a number of staffers given the opportunity to replace him At first a straightforward announcer Cordic began introducing comedy to his programfirst in subtle ways such as reading a sports score for East Overshoe University along with the real scores and later by adding a repertory company of supporting comic characters The morning show renamed Cordic Company became the most popular in Pittsburgh In 1954 Cordic Company moved to KDKA AM on Labor Day one of the first times that an American radio station had hired a major personality directly from a local competitor Popular Bette Smiley had decided to retire from her fulltime KDKA wakeup show Radio Gift Shoppe of the Air and move to a Sundayonly condensed version on WCAE in August 1954 in order to raise her young son Robbie Cordics immediate predecessor in the morning slot was the Ed and Rainbow show featuring Ed Schaughency with Elmer Waltman cast in the role of Rainbow the janitor Waltman was dropped and Schaughency was moved to the afternoon with a show called Schaughencys Record Cabinet Schaughency lasted less than two years in that role before he was replaced by Art Pallan who also came over from WWSW Schaughency took on a new role as a news reader and moved back to mornings delivering the newscasts during Cordic Company The shows ratings continued to grow until at some points it had an 85 sharemeaning that 85 of all radios in Pittsburgh were tuned to Cordic Company while it was on By the end of his tenure in Pittsburgh Cordic was reportedly earning 100000 a year a huge sum for a radio host at the time
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