Windowing is a film term referring to the ability of a single product to generate revenues in different viewing ‘windows’. Television has adopted the strategy, windowing its content by crossing platforms, first showing it on the small screen (window one), then over the Internet (window two), then re-broadcasting it at a later date (window three). All to squeeze as much revenue from the product as possible. With Leonard Cohen: Live from London, the CBC takes the concept of ‘windowing’ content a step further, giving the latest CD from Canada’s best known modern songwriter-troubadour exposure on television, radio, the Internet and its own specialty channel, Bold.

The CBC, with its multiple platforms, is better positioned than most Canadian media companies to engage in windowing and, potentially, to give a single product the greatest amount of exposure. Cohen’s concert in London, UK has already been broadcast on CBC television and radio. But don’t worry if you missed it. Excerpts are available on the Radio Two web site, and the month of April is looking like Leonard Cohen month, with a one-hour interview with Cohen on CBC radio on April 16th (Radio One) and the 23rd (Radio Two) and available as an audio and video podcast thereafter. Further appearances of Cohen will be shown on CBC’s The National this evening, and the entire concert will be re-broadcast on Bold, the CBC’s very own channel dedicated to the performing arts, on April 16th.

Cohen’s concert performances are laid back events. For the London sets, Cohen looks dapper on stage, dressed in a full, double-breasted suit (but no tie) and slim fedora, eyes closed, crooning his magical words into a microphone clasped firmly in his hands, that voice so dark, deep and cool. He is well backed up with three female singers, singing some of his now-classic tunes such as Suzanne (where he plays guitar), Hallelujah, I’m Your Man, First We Take Manhattan, I Tried To Leave You, Dance Me To The End Of Love and Bird On The Wire. When he sings “Repent, Repent” on The Future, you believe him, as he sounds no less than a preacher of doom descended from the mountain as the bombs rain down on what’s left of the world. In between songs, he tells the audience about the last time he was in London as a ‘mere kid’ at age 60, joking darkly about how, despite all the Prozac and other anti-depressants taken, ‘cheerfulness continued to break through’.

For the interview, the CBC’s Jian Ghomeshi asks the man questions on ageing, mortality, love and financial loss in his own home in Montreal, a treat for local audiences who realize that Cohen still manages to come back to his place of birth from time to time, taking a break from his globetrotting concert tours.

Cohen is magical on stage, magical and simple, making one glad that the cheerfulness breaks through and that such wonderful songs continue to get written and performed. He is a cultural icon that deserves all the windowing this country can provide.

Leonard Cohen: Live in London, Interview on Radio One April 16th, Repeated on Radio Two on April 23rd and available as an audio/video podcast after the 16th. Concert to be broadcast on Bold, April 16th, 8pm.