Stuart McLean

Who is Stuart McLean?

Stuart McLean is a Canadian radio broadcaster, humourist and author, best known as the host of the CBC Radio program The Vinyl Cafe. He is often described as a "story-telling comic", though he has written many serious stories. He is known for his distinctive voice and his ability to alter his popular stories to make them distinctive on every show.

McLean was educated at Lower Canada College in Montreal and graduated from Sir George Williams University with a B.A. degree in 1971. From 1978 until 1982, he made documentaries for the radio program Sunday Morning for CBC Radio, and from 1982 until 1984 he acted as the show's executive producer. During the 1980s and 1990s he was a frequent guest and sometimes host of Morningside with Peter Gzowski.

As a summer replacement show, McLean created a radio program called The Vinyl Cafe in 1994. By autumn 1997 the show was broadcast every Sunday at noon. McLean's books of stories from The Vinyl Cafe have won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour three times.

McLean retired in 2004 as a professor at the School of Journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Since 1998, McLean has taken The Vinyl Cafe on the road to theatres across Canada and the United States. The Vinyl Cafe is broadcast every weekend on CBC Radio and is also heard via satellite radio around the world and on public radio stations in the US, as well as a weekly podcast.