Cascade of History

Feliks Banel’s guest on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY is Liz Wood, Spokane-based historian and collector of all things Expo '74, the world's fair held in the Lilac City 50 years ago at what's now Riverfront Park. Ms. Wood shared recordings from her collection of Expo '74 songs and helped put together a countdown of rare and nearly forgotten recordings created to promote the fair, and t...

Feliks Banel presents on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY highlights from a Seattle SuperSonics history panel discussion recorded at the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) on June 1, 2004 featuring Greg Heberlein, retired Seattle Times journalist; the late Bob Blackburn, original “Voice of the Sonics”; and the late John “J.J.” Johnson, member of the 1979 NBA World Championship team. The...

Feliks Banel’s guests on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Dr. Quintard Taylor, founder of BlackPast.org, Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, and author of “The Forging of a Black Community,” in an archival interview from the old COLUMBIA CONVERSATIONS podcast; and Joseph Pentheroudakis, board member of the Key Peninsula Historical Society about the new exhibit “Roa...

Feliks Banel's guests on this episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY – broadcast LIVE from Parkland, Washington - include Wendy Freeman and Phil Edlund, organizers with the group Save Our Historic Parkland School; James Hester, member of the final sixth grade class at the school who spoke out as an 11-year-old in 1981 in favor of saving the school; Tono Sablan of BlueZones Parkland-Spanaway; Nick Biermann...

Feliks Banel presents a tribute to late Pacific Northwest DJ and pop culture renaissance man Pat O’Day on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY. With a vintage aircheck and two long excerpts from an oral history recorded by WSU Professor Hugh Rundell in the late 1970s, we hear directly from Pat O’Day about his early influences and his peripatetic radio career around the Evergreen State (and a...

Feliks Banel’s guests on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Jack Christensen, longtime Northern Pacific employee on the history of the Belt Line and the Wilburton Trestle (recorded in 2017); Jean Sherrard on the social-media snowstorm of February 2019 (recorded in 2019); Janet Way on the Fircrest Chapel in Shoreline being added to the National Register of Historic Places; and the fo...

On this special 2023 Christmas episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we present Chris Wedes (better known as KIRO TV clown J.P. Patches) and Bob Newman (better known as J.P.'s pal Gertrude) in an original radio play first broadcast on KIXI AM 880 in Seattle on December 16, 2000. Wedes plays a Frederick & Nelson department store doorman, while Newman is the F&N Santa Claus. A family tries to visit the dow...

Feliks Banel’s guests on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY include Kerry Tymchuk, executive director of the Oregon Historical Society on holiday traditions in Portland; Anna Harbine of Spokane’s Museum of Arts & Culture (MAC) on Spokane holiday traditions; and Laurie Carter with an update on efforts to “Save the Ryan House” in Sumner, Washington. Also, Christmas surprises and the third ins...

Feliks Banel’s guests on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY include John Mackie of The Vancouver Sun on recently discovered artifacts from the SS BEAVER, the most storied vessel in Pacific Northwest and British Columbia history; roving correspondent Ken Zick REPORTING LIVE from Olympic Manor’s holiday display; Phil Edlund of Save Our Parkland School with the latest on the community’s grassr...

Feliks Banel pits Everett, WA-born Stan Boreson against Tacoma, WA-born Yogi Yorgesson in a holiday smackdown of Scandinavian novelty Christmas songs; roving correspondent Ken Zick reports LIVE FROM THE SCENE of the abrupt closure of XXX Root Beer in Issaquah; and we hear the first installment in the 1951 vintage “Blackie of Naches Valley” episode of the Seattle centennial educational radio progra...

On this special bonus podcast episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel's interview from the archives with Bryan Johnson, longtime KOMO Radio and TV journalist in Seattle, recalling his early career at KOMO Radio, and the day he was on the job and had to break the news that President Kennedy had been assassinated. Portions of this interview were used in a KUOW piece in 2013, and on KIRO Newsradi...

Feliks Banel's guests on this episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Eric Ulis, D.B. Cooper expert, searcher and researcher with a lesson in 'D.B. Cooper 101' in advance of next week's CooperCon at Seattle's Museum of Flight, and roving correspondent Ken Zick joins us live from the monument at rainy and windswept Alki Beach in West Seattle to mark the 172nd anniversary of the arrival of The Denny Party...

Feliks Banel's guests on this episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Mytyl Hernandez, museum director of Hibulb Cultural Center at the Tulalip Reservation on their new exhibit about Indigenous languages; roving correspondent Ken Zick on the closure of MacPherson’s Fruit & Produce on Seattle’s Beacon Hill; and excerpts from an exclusive interview with Archivist of the United States Dr. Colleen Shogan on...

On this CASCADE OF HISTORY Halloween Special, Pat Cashman and John Maynard star in a tribute to the "War of the Worlds" panic broadcast of 1938. In "Sports Talk Radio Panic," Cashman plays Vince O'Neill, host of "Seattle Sports Sunday Night" on AM 1090 The Fan, and Maynard is anachronistic radio newsman Bryan Lewis. Also starring Chris Cashman, Lee Callahan, Curtis Takahashi, Tracey Conway, Rob Jo...

Feliks Banel’s guests on this special bonus podcast episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Wendy Freeman and Phil Edlund, part of the group working to “Save Parkland School” in Pierce County east of Tacoma. This all-volunteer community group is facing a fundraising deadline coming up on Friday, November 3, 2023, and they are working to spread the word about how people can support their important effort...

Feliks Banel's guests on this episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Tim McNulty, author of a new book called "Salmon, Rock, Cedar & Rain: Washington's Olympic Peninsula" from the Braided River imprint of Mountaineers Books; Clay Eals, half of the team that produces the weekly "Now & Then" column for The Seattle Times, on the unexpected passing of the local woman featured in this week's edition; and Ni...

This special bonus podcast-only episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY features all public comments from the Sumner (WA) City Council meeting of Monday, October 16, 2023. Most of the commenters spoke in favor of saving the Ryan House in Sumner. One of the supporters of the effort was a guest on our previous episode. The comments made at the meeting received no formal reply from the Sumner City Council, and...

Feliks Banel's guests on this episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Laurie Carter, who describes the efforts of a community group in the Pierce County community of Sumner, WA who are working to convince the city government to preserve rather than demolish the historic - and city-owned - "Ryan House" in downtown Sumner; and historian and researcher Shawn Murphy, talking about his study and investigatio...

Feliks Banel's focus on this episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY is what's often called the "anti-nomination" process for potential landmarks reviewed by the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods' Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board - when a building's owner does NOT want the building designated as a city landmark, and consultants and attorneys join in a process that probably runs counter to how...

The October 1, 2023 episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY on SPACE 101.1 FM is an encore of our VJ Day live remote broadcast, and is a deep dive on the history and historical significance of Seattle High School Memorial Stadium - the entire 1947 stadium, not just the 1951 wall of names. This coming Wednesday, October 4, 2023 the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board will complete a task begun in August: to...

Feliks Banel's guest on this episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY is author, historian and playwright Frank Abe, who’s devoted much of the past four decades to studying, writing about, and creating public programs about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II - and who is hosting a series of programs this autumn at the Seattle Public Library marking the centennial of the birth of auth...

Feliks Banel's guests on this episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Katherine White, who stalked Elvis Presley at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair and ran Seattle's Elvis fan club; Markus Fahrner, exhibitions manager of Coquitlam Heritage on a new exhibit about Chinese exclusion in Canada from the 1920s to the 1940s; and Megan Churchwell of the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild previewing the conference...

In advance of the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board reviewing a landmark nomination for Seattle High School Memorial Stadium on Wednesday, August 16, 2023, a special episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY was broadcast live on SPACE 101.1 FM from the Memorial Wall at the stadium on the 78th anniversary of "VJ Day" - when WWII hostilities ceased on August 14, 1945. This broadcast was made as a public ser...

Feliks Banel's guests on this SUMMERTIME EDITION of CASCADE OF HISTORY are meteorologist Scott Sistek, in a conversation recorded just after the 2021 Pacific Northwest "heatdome"; and longtime local journalist Essex Porter reflecting on his career after his recent retirement. Both interviews are from the archives of COLUMBIA CONVERSATIONS, for which Feliks was the founding producer and host. This...

Feliks Banel's guests on this SUMMERTIME EDITION of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Olympia Beer historian Megan Ockerman; and historian, author and UW Professor Emeritus Quintard Taylor, founder of BlackPast.org. Both interviews are from the archives of COLUMBIA CONVERSATIONS, for which Feliks was the founding producer and host. This SUMMERTIME EDITION broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY was originally presen...