And it is an audience that is quite happy to conjure up Gzowski's face in their own imaginations, without the extra information of the TV screen. Less, indeed, is more, especially when the 'more' carries more restrictions. The extra information of television cashiered the Gzowski charm, just as it turns Canadian TV drama into American clones. I was no good on late-night television until I got cancelled. Most of all, it is an audience which has chosen to be there by committing intelligence and attention to a form that cannot insist on such devotion.
Radio is an amorphous medium, especially when given a minimum degree of freedom from money.
CBC Radio has shaped itself into a joint enterprise where listeners pay attention as well as taxes. It has made Peter Gzowski the most trusted person in a country where that quality is in scarce supply. Maybe only one in ten is listening, but they like what they hear. Even the prime minister can't claim that. Gzowski and the network were the subjects of the last film for the National Film Board by prominent Canadian documentary film-maker Donald Brittain, shot in 1989 and completed after Brittain's death by Robert Duncan.