Hero of the Radio Dial 3

Yesterday I mentioned that I first heard the song "Navajo Rug" by Ian Tyson on the CBC. It was on the program Morningside with Peter Gzowski, who I consider to be the best interviewer I've ever heard. He was a master of asking the right question and allowing his subjects sufficient opportunity to answer them. He also could swing from a freewhelling hour with the Canadian Prime Minister to equally compelling discussion with a scientist just returned from the Serengeti or an athlete training for the Olympics (in a sport like luge) or a classical violinist. I think Gzowki's brilliance was that he really wanted to know what all of these people did and thought, and he never pretended that he was anything more than a surrogate for his audience whose collective curiosity he took to be as expansive as the universe. Gzowski really made you feel like you were part of a conversation, and never the target of a marketing campaign, and he could hold his guests' feet to the fire when necessary. Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago, but since that brief allusion yesterday got me thinking about him, I thought I'd check to see if I could find some evidence of his greatness. Here are a couple of clips from when he was doing TV back in the 70s, first with the communications scholar Marshall McLuhan:



Here's another, with Gzowski interviewing Lorne Michaels and Gilda Radner from the early days of Saturday Night Live:



Neither of these entirely do justice to Gzowski's skills, which really flowered over the course of an hour (or longer) discussion; but they give you little hint. Radio (and TV) would be a lot better if there were more like him around, but I don't know if there are anymore.

(P.S. I think this will be an ongoing series on the blog, and though I haven't actually used the title before, I'm labeling this #3 after earlier posts about Paul Rhymer and Jackson Armstrong.)