Cornelius O'Leary received what he refers to "that critical call that changed my life" in 1964 while he was taking a respite from his early broadcasting career.

He had recently left a job at a Buffalo radio station where he was doing an interview show and play-by-play of high school football and basketball games. "I was happily enjoying my new station in life as a ski bum," when that call came from a radio station in Nebraska. The station "desperately needed" a play-by-play man to finish its season's basketball games.

After he accepted the job, Corny found out he also was expected to serve as news director (with a staff of one), host for a rock-and-roll show, and host of his first radio telephone talk show. He left at the end of the basketball season to go to California, where he free-lanced for some small radio stations and covered the Goldwater presidential campaign there.

O'Leary returned to New York in 1965 to join WFBL in Syracuse as news editor, collecting and airing newscasts from six a.m. to Noon.

In 1967, WFBL sent O'Leary to Vietnam to interview area military personnel stationed there. While on that assignment, he also did some reporting for ABC News with stories originating from both Vietnam and Macao. That was his first -- but not last -- taste of being a foreign correspondent. He would also broadcast from Germany, Cambodia, and Israel.

With O'Leary's return from the Far East war zone, he became the host of WFBL's "Opinion Show," in which he took telephone calls on any subject from callers who had to "defend" his or her position. This program resulted in some "heated, although generally civilized conversations," Corny recalls.

Probably his best-known guest on this show was Bob Hope, who happened to be in Syracuse at that time. O'Leary says Hope stayed on the program for about 45 minutes. Corny continued on the "Opinion" show until 1973, when it was cancelled. In 1983, he brought the format back for about a year on WNDR.

In the late '60s and early '70s, O'Leary served as the host of numerous interview programs on WCNY-TV. He also has done many radio commercials, voice-overs, and film narrations.

Corny is a native of Buffalo and was educated at the University of Buffalo, Syracuse University and at Onondaga Community, Cayuga Community and Fairfield Junior colleges.