Regis Cordic

Cordic also produced a short-lived radio show composed of simulated baseball games, based on a 1620 computer program developed by John Burgeson of the IBM Corporation.

Two characters who visited Cordic regularly on the show were Omicron and his girlfriend Matildacron, who were aliens from Venus.

Sometimes he was accompanied by Noodnicron who was from Jupiter.

After arriving noisily in their flying saucer, Cordic usually had to explain something about humans that puzzled them.

Noodnicron was apparently shaped like a billiard ball, as in one famous skit he was injured while resting on a large green field when suddenly Earth people began to poke him with long sticks and shooting deaf and dumb Jovians at him.

Omicron reportedly helped finish drilling the Fort Pitt tunnel by accidentally flying his saucer through it when incomplete and crashing into the unfinished section and out the other side.

Cordic recorded a childrens record featuring Omicron and Noodnicron called "Omicron and the Sputnik" which was, in turn adapted into a cartoon by Mel-O-Toons.

Brunhilda, a spectacularly overweight but jolly young woman with a heavy Western Pennsylvania accent, was also a regular.

When she arrived, listeners would hear booming footsteps followed by the opening of the freight door (because she could not fit through the regular doors).

Cordic called her "Bruny" and she called him "Chub", although he was a very thin man.

Another frequent guest was Carmen Monoxide, known for his bad jokes and puns.

In one episode, Carmen runs afoul of Milove, the resident cow.

Milove and Milk, the milkman who collected her milk, often had run-ins over whether he was milking another cow.

Mr. Goat was also present in the audience and often became offended when he was rudely pushed aside so that Bruny could get to her seat.

Much of the material mentioned here and more can be heard at the official Cordic web site including some memorable moments on the radio and some of the ads printed locally in Pittsburgh.

Regis John Cordic (May 15, 1926 – April 16, 1999) was an American radio personality and actor, also known and credited as Rege Cordic.

His career in entertainment was divided roughly in half.

From 1948 to 1965, he was the dominant morning drive-time radio host in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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 program—first 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.

From the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, he was a successful voice, television, and film actor in Los Angeles, California.

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 WWSW-AM.

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 full-time KDKA wake-up show Radio Gift Shoppe of the Air and move to a Sunday-only condensed version on WCAE in August 1954 in order to raise her young son Robbie.

Cordic's 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 Schaughency's 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 show's ratings continued to grow until, at some points, it had an 85 share—meaning 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 $100,000 a year, a huge sum for a radio host at the time.

One of Cordic's most memorable running gags at both WWSW and KDKA were fake advertisements for "Olde Frothingslosh", "the pale stale ale with the foam on the bottom."

This beer was supposedly brewed by Sir Reginald Frothingslosh at Upper Crudney-on-the-Thames.

In 1955, Pittsburgh Brewing Company began issuing special Christmas-season cans and bottles of Olde Frothingslosh filled with real beer.

Since the Cordic ad read "The foam is on the bottom", the bottles and cans were packed upside down in the cases.

The humorous labels changed every year and became favorites of collectors.

The brewery (as well as a few other small local Pittsburgh breweries such as Tech Beer) released new editions of Olde Frothingslosh even after Cordic left Pittsburgh, continuing until 1982 and then reviving the brand in 1998, and more recently in 2007 (currently available).

Cordic advertised a wide variety of whimsical products on the show, including the Crudley white liner (an automobile that was only 18 in wide, designed to drive on the white line that divided highways), Mediocre cigarettes in a crush-proof package made of stainless steel, and Cordoco Gasoline (it prevents undependable gas gauge problems by compressing ten gallons into nine).

Another product was a book of sports misinformation, so one could memorize the alleged facts and win bar bets using the book as proof.