Stuart McLean was the writer and host of the popular CBC Radio show The Vinyl Cafe . He is the author of the bestselling books Vinyl Cafe Diaries , which won the short fiction award from the Canadian Authors Association; The Morningside World of Stuart McLean, which was a finalist for the City of Toronto Book Awards; Welcome Home: Travels in Smalltown Canada , which won the CAA's award for nonfiction; and Home from the Vinyl Cafe , Vinyl Cafe Unplugged , and Secrets from the Vinyl Cafe , all three of which won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. He received the Canadian Booksellers Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. He passed away on February 15, 2017.