The Vinyl Cafe was an hour-long radio variety show hosted by Stuart McLean that was broadcast on CBC Radio and was syndicated to approximately 80 U.S. public radio stations through Public Radio International.[1] It aired on Sunday at noon ET and Tuesday at 11:00 pm ET on CBC Radio One and Saturday at 9 am ET on CBC Radio 2. The program was also available as a CBC podcast, although the podcasts usually contained just McLean's stories and essays for studio episodes because of copyright restrictions on recorded music.[2] CBC Radio also aired a separate weekday afternoon program, under the title Vinyl Cafe Stories, which consisted of two previously recorded Dave and Morley stories per episode.
The show was produced independently by McLean and sold to the CBC. Each season had approximately 26 new episodes. Half of those were recorded in the studio and the other half were done with live audiences in theatres across Canada and the United States. One episode was recorded onboard VIA Rail's transcontinental passenger train The Canadian from the dome observation car, complete with an audience of passengers and featured a rail travel theme. The musical guest was singer songwriter Reid Jamieson.
The Vinyl Cafe stopped touring and producing new episodes following McLean's diagnosis with melanoma in November 2015.[3]