Editing Stuart McLean (section)

=== ''The Vinyl Cafe'' ===
{{Main|The Vinyl Cafe}}
In 1994, McLean launched ''The Vinyl Cafe'' as a summer series featuring stories about a fictional second-hand record store.<ref>"CBC revamps weekend schedule". ''[[Edmonton Journal]]'', July 2, 1994.</ref> Although the early stories focused on a diverse group of characters loosely linked through the titular Vinyl Cafe record store, by the time the series became a permanent one the stories were focused more squarely on the store's proprietor, Dave, and his family and friends.<ref name="starvehicle">"Vinyl Cafe a star vehicle for McLean". ''[[Kingston Whig-Standard]]'', February 13, 1998.</ref> Following the show's second summer run in 1995, McLean published ''Stories from the Vinyl Cafe'', his first book in that series.<ref>"Consummate storyteller unveils memorable collection". ''[[Kingston Whig-Standard]]'', November 4, 1995.</ref> The show joined CBC's permanent regular-season schedule in 1997.<ref>"CBC Radio changes name and schedule: Renaming of two networks reflects massive restructuring of programming". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', August 20, 1997.</ref>
[[File:Stuart McLean.jpg|thumb|Stuart McLean on stage at the [[Centennial Concert Hall]] in [[Winnipeg]], [[Manitoba]]]]
Beginning in 1998, McLean took ''The Vinyl Cafe'' on the road to theatres across Canada and the United States.<ref name=torstar/><ref name=starvehicle/> Some stories would be repeated at multiple shows—in particular, an early story about Dave's awkward attempt to cook a turkey for Christmas dinner became one of the most famous and most frequently performed stories of McLean's career<ref>"Vinyl Cafe brings a new bird". ''[[Victoria Times-Colonist]]'', November 22, 2012.</ref>—but McLean would often perform slightly different versions of the stories to keep his audiences engaged.<ref name=grand>"Vinyl Cafe's McLean returns to Grand". ''[[Kingston Whig-Standard]]'', January 29, 1999.</ref> One episode of ''The Vinyl Cafe'' each year was also dedicated to the "Arthur Awards", McLean's own awards program to honour acts of kindness and community engagement by ordinary Canadians that might otherwise "go unheralded and even unnoticed".<ref name=ccc>[http://www.cbc.ca/radio/checkup/remembering-stuart-what-everyday-act-of-an-ordinary-person-in-your-community-do-you-think-should-be-honoured-1.3987950 "Remembering Stuart: What everyday act of an ordinary person in your community do you think should be honoured?"] ''[[Cross Country Checkup]]'', February 19, 2017.</ref>

''The Vinyl Cafe'' was broadcast every weekend on CBC Radio, and later as a weekly podcast.<ref name=demara>Bruce DeMara, "McLean steps down from his Vinyl Cafe: CBC Radio host says year-long battle against melanoma is not going 'exactly as planned'". ''[[Toronto Star]]'', December 14, 2016.</ref> McLean's books of stories from ''The Vinyl Cafe'' won the [[Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour]] three times.<ref name=canenc/> Several albums of his performances of ''Vinyl Cafe'' stories were also released. In the 2010s a spinoff edition, ''Vinyl Café Stories'', aired on CBC Radio in a weekday afternoon time-slot, featuring two previously broadcast stories on interrelated themes.