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Gzowski signs off from This Country in the Morning

Broadcast Date: June 28, 1974

After three seasons as the host of This Country in the Morning, Peter Gzowski says goodbye to radio. The three-hour weekday morning show, with its mixed bag of interviews, music, essays and recipes, was the most popular CBC Radio show at the time. In the last few minutes of the final program, an emotional Gzowski thanks his listeners, saying he's taking time off for a rest and a change. He ends the show by promising to return to CBC Radio one day.

Gzowski signs off from This Country in the Morning

• Two on-air people played a vital role in the program. The first, Helen Hutchinson, was almost a co-host when This Country in the Morning began, but she later left the show and moved on to TV. The second was Danny Finkleman, who later hosted his own music/talk program, Finkleman's 45's, from the mid-1980s until 2005.

• CBC management had enticed Gzowski and his executive producer, Alex Frame, to TV. They hoped the team, which had revitalized morning radio, would do the same for late-night television.

• About leaving CBC Radio's This Country in the Morning for TV, Gzowski later wrote. "Given everything I know now, I would never have left it at the time." (Peter Gzowski: An Electric Life, 1994).

• In 1974, he published Peter Gzowski's Book About This Country In The Morning, based on his radio show.

• Gzowski once said hosting This Country in the Morning was the most exhilarating, exciting and rewarding three years of his life.

Gzowski signs off from This Country in the Morning

Medium: Radio

Program: This Country in the Morning

Broadcast Date: June 28, 1974

Host: Peter Gzowski

Duration: 1:37

Last updated:
Nov. 23, 2005