Cascade of History

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Dave Wagers, president - and "Candyman" - of the Idaho Candy Company, makers of the famous "Idaho Spud" candy bar. In this interview from June 30, 2021, we go deep on the company’s history and its place in the contemporary culture of the Gem State. Special thanks to Preservation Idaho for posting a photo on Facebook of the Idaho...

Feliks Banel's guest on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY is musician Scott Sutherland, a deep thinker, historian and philosopher of American music and Northwest bands and culture. Going back to the 1980s, Sutherland played in Seattle bands including the Dwindles, Chemistry Set and Model Rockets, and has been a fan of British band Oasis since the mid 1990s. Sutherland saw Oasis play at the...

On this BONUS “IN THE NEWS” EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with U.S. Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Sherri Eng for details about the upcoming visit to Seattle by the Coast Guard sailing vessel Eagle. The three-masted barque Eagle is on a West Coast tour during the summer of 2025 and will visit Seattle on Wednesday, July 9 and Thursday, July 10. The vessel will be open for pu...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with James R. Walker, author of "Crack of the Bat: A History of Baseball on the Radio." Mr. Walker's book was published in 2015 by University of Nebraska Press. In this conversation from June 2019, he describes the early days of baseball broadcasting, and that special fit and distinctive connection that only the sport of baseball see...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel looks in the past and future of Freighthouse Square in Tacoma with Tacoma historian and historic preservationist Michael Sullivan, and with Sound Transit public information officer David Jackson. As reported last week by multiple media outlets in the Puget Sound area, Freighthouse Square is likely to be demolished or radically altered somet...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Lt. Colonel Erik Flint, retired former director of Lewis Army Museum at JBLM - Joint Base Lewis McChord - near Tacoma, Washington. As reported by Jerry Cornfield for the Washington State Standard on July 1, 2025, the museum is on a list of similar military museums around the country now targeted for closure. According to Lt. Col...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we present audio from a live reading of the Declaration of Independence held at the old MOHAI - Museum of History & Industry - in Seattle's Montlake neighborhood. When an original printing of the Declaration of Independence visited Seattle in August 2003, it was displayed for 11 days at MOHAI. The document was here as part of a national tour organized b...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we present audio from a live interview with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) in Seattle's Lake Union Park on October 11, 2013. Host and emcee is MOHAI director Leonard Garfield, who introduces then-Governor Jay Inslee. Then, Garfield and Bezos engage in a far-ranging conversation about innovation and Bezos’ philosoph...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Valerie van Heest of Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates about calling an end to the search for Northwest Airlines Flight 2501 of June 23, 1950. Ms. van Heest and her colleagues have spent two decades searching in Lake Michigan for the missing DC-4, which was bound for Seattle from New York City with 58 passengers and crew. M...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY from the farewell event for Seattle High School Memorial Stadium include Clay Eals and Jean Sherrard of the Seattle Times' Seattle Now & Then; Northwest sports historian and collector David Eskenazi; and music historian Eric Magnuson. The 1947 stadium, deemed unworthy of landmark status, will soon be demolished and a shiny n...

The City of Seattle and Seattle Public Schools are inviting the public to say goodbye to Seattle High School Memorial Stadium this Thursday, June 26, 2025 from 4pm to 7pm. Memorial Stadium – built in 1947 - was deemed to be not worthy of landmark status in Seattle and will be demolished, while the 1951 wall engraved with names of Seattle Public Schools’ WWII war dead was given landmark status and...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Erik Lacitis, longtime journalist with the Seattle Times, to preview an upcoming story in the Sunday magazine. Lacitis put the call out last week for suggestions from readers - headlined “Riots, bad drivers, Dick’s is overrated. Is this your Seattle? Tell us.” - asking for input about local places and products that tend to serve...

Feliks Banel's guests on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Yakima Valley Trolleys founder Ken Johnsen with an update on last week's Yakima City Council meeting; architect and former Seattle City Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck on the University of Washington's plans for the ASUW Shellhouse - and the op-ed he wrote which appeared in the Seattle Times this weekend; and Mitsy Hunter o...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Nina Wallace, media and outreach manager of DENSHO, the private non-profit based in Seattle which is dedicated to documenting and sharing the history of Japanese incarceration during World War II. Ms. Wallace describes DENSHO's work, and efforts to respond to a Trump Administration initiative focused on "restoring truth and sani...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Doug Parton of Ironworker Local 97 in Vancouver, BC and with Lucien Lessard, the sole surviving survivor of the June 17, 1958 collapse of what’s now called the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge. The bridge crosses Burrard Inlet near Vancouver, British Columbia. Special thanks to CBC Vancouver for featuring Mr. Parton on the June 17, 2...

Feliks Banel's guests on this LIVE REMOTE BROADCAST of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Ken Johnsen, founder of the Yakima Valley Trolleys (YVT); Moira Nadal, preservation programs director of the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation; John Baule, retired former director, Yakima Valley Museum; Curt Wilson, Downtown Association of Yakima (DAY); YVT motorman Jim Moore; musicians Ken Toney and Palmer...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel's guest is John Berkowitz, who worked in the neon sign industry in Seattle in the 1980s and 1990s and had a hand in several iconic signs – including the 5 SPOT on Queen Anne Hill, and Ray’s Boathouse at Shilshole Bay. CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly stre...

Feliks Banel’s guest on this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Emily Venomen, research archivist at the Puget Sound Regional Branch of the Washington State Archives. We cover the basics of "Real Property Record Cards" - those tax assessor photos and other information that dates from the late 1930s to the early 1970s, and how historians and others may access collections of these documents from...

In a follow-up to last week’s BONUS EPISODE and to this past Sunday’s broadcast about the ASUW Shellhouse – best known as home to the “Boys in the Boat” - Feliks Banel speaks with two officials from the University of Washington about their work to preserve and update the beloved structure along the Montlake Cut. We also hear the UW's response to recent concerns expressed by some advisory board mem...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we present complete audio from a revival of the Seattle centennial history pageant “The Dream and The Deed.” It was originally written and produced in 1951 and 1952 by University of Washington drama professor Glenn Hughes. For the 50th anniversary of the pageant – which happened to also be the 50th anniversary of the old Museum of History & Industry in...

Feliks Banel's guests on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Nick Biermann of Save Ryan House with a head-spinning twist in the legal battle to preserve Sumner's most historic structure; and Rebecca Stedman, member of the Advisory Board on the restoration project for the ASUW Shellhouse - home of the "Boys in the Boat" - which is embroiled in a preservation controversy; plus: audio o...

On this bonus episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with radio historian Liz McLeod about how American radio networks covered D-Day, the Allied landings in France of June 6, 1944. More than 25 years ago, McLeod ranked D-Day as the most significant event in old-time radio history for the many broadcasting firsts, the quality of the coverage, and the technical and organizational innovat...

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we present very personal vintage audio from Seattle food writer Ronald Holden, and a conversation with Mr. Holden about his late Aunt Marga. Her full name was Margarete Pauline Isaac, and in 1941 she lived in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation. Marga recorded a one-minute audio disc and mailed it to her sister – Ronald Holden’s mother – in Oregon, nea...

On this bonus episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with Al Mackenzie and Ray Skoff, two members of the advisory board for the project to restore and preserve the home of the "Boys in the Boat" - a World War I seaplane hangar along the Montlake Cut at the University of Washington in Seattle. The two men say that the UW is seeking approval for changes to the structure which would harm...

On this BONUS 'GO PACERS' EDITION of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we present complete audio from a 25th anniversary commemoration of the Seattle Supersonics' one and only 1979 NBA World Championship. Panelists are the late John “J.J.” Johnson, a member of the championship team, plus the late ‘Voice of the Sonics’ Bob Blackburn, as well as Greg Heberlein, the retired Seattle Times sportswriter who covered t...