The ButteCast with Bill Foley

Today’s guest is the vice president of sales at LLCTLC in Helena, but that has nothing to do with why he is on the ButteCast. Scott Meredith is just one interesting guy. Scott is a historian who graduated from Helena Capital and served as a teacher’s assistant under the legendary Harry Fritz in the history department at the University of Montana. His work includes a deep dive into Helena poet Robe...

Last week’s passing of Chicago Bears legend Mike Ditka really stung. I never got the chance to meet Da Coach, but it feels like I have known him my entire life. I have been a Bears fan since 1970 something, and Ditka was the coach by the time I really started paying attention to football. He was also a guy whose unapologetic lifestyle inspired me in so many ways. That is why the Ditka sweater my g...

Alani Bankhead makes her return to the ButteCast today. This time, she is appearing in person. The Democratic nominee to represent Montana in the United States Senate was in the Mining City Monday for a campaign event. First, she stopped by the Metals Sports Bar & Grill for a conversation in the vault. Alani is in the middle of one of the weirdest races in Montana political history. She is the...

This special Saturday Night edition of the ButteCast does not have a whole lot to do with the Mining City. But it is a story you definitely want to hear. Tonight’s guest is Peyton Meyer, a freshman on the East Helena High School golf team. A few weeks ago, I wrote about Payton after he sent me a letter thanking me for putting his name in a story about the Beaverhead Invitational golf tournament. I...

Somewhere between Butte’s Greeley Elementary School and graduating high school in Rigby, Idaho, Daniel Michalsky became LOUD. That is not a commentary on his volume. LOUD is his stage name, and he has been performing hip-hop music since he was in middle school. You can catch him perform during the Twiztid Tuesday performance next Tuesday, Oct. 13, at the Covellite Theatre. ( Click here  to buy tic...

Today’s episode is different than any of the previous episodes of the ButteCast. We are talking with the Unabomba, a new-to-the-scene hip-hop artist who will be rapping during the Twiztid Tuesday performance on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at the Covellite Theatre. ( Click here  to buy tickets.) The show will be headlined by Blaze Ya Dead Homie. It will also include the Unabomba and fellow Butte artist LOUD....

I am not a billionaire, though people often mistake me for a guy by the same first and last name who is. William P. Foley, who goes by Bill, is a billionaire who owns an NHL team, a super-exclusive golf course and a lot of private land you will never get to hunt or fish on. I am William J. Foley, who also goes by Bill, a hundredaire who might let you in his very small backyard.  Sometimes it is fu...

Get ready for a different kind of comedy show at the Covellite Theatre.  The DOSE: A Psychedelic Comedy Show will perform at Butte’s great theatre at 7 p.m. Saturday, and you have probably seen nothing like this. ( Click here  to buy tickets) The DOSE is billed as a fully-immersive psychedelic multimedia experience featuring a live DJ, visuals, flow performers, and a carefully-curated lineup of so...

Today, my heart is broken for a man I knew for less than a year. The Mining City lost a true legend last week when John Kovacich unexpectedly passed away at the age of 66. To meet John was to be his friend. The Mining City is a lesser place today. Missoula is a lesser place. The world is a lesser place without John Kovacich, who is already missed by everyone he ever met. That is what today’s colum...

If you would have asked me a month ago which of the nearly 400 episodes of the ButteCast are my favorites, it wouldn’t have taken me long to mention the name Jim Norton. His story absolutely blew me away. “Norty,” as he was affectionately known in the Mining City, is exactly why I started this podcast in the first place. Not only did the podcast give me a chance to really meet Jim for the first ti...

Today we are talking softball and Mariah’s Challenge with my cousin Jorey Thatcher. You won’t see Jorey hitting any home runs Saturday when the police take on the firefighters in the Guns & Hoses softball game at Stodden Park. He isn’t going to play in the game, probably because he got the Foley athletic gene instead of the one from the Thatcher side of his family. But Jorey, or Officer Thatch...

Transgender people do not hurt anyone. Despite what the dark money mailers might tell us, very few of them are trying to compete in girls’ or women’s sports.  But here we are a little more than a month before the midterm elections, and Aaron Flint is trying to drum up that time-tested hatred for transgender people as he tries to win the race for Montana’s First Congressional House District seat. W...

Today we begin Season 5 of the ButteCast with a very special guest. Comedian Jason Salmon will be performing at the Covellite Theater in Butte on Oct. 2. ( Tickets ) The night before, he will do a show in Missoula. This is the most excited I’ve been to see a comedian perform live since I sat in the front row to see Bill Burr in Bozeman in 2013. I have the Facebook algorithm to thank for introducin...

How you looked at Michigan’s 13-12 win over Michigan State on Michigan’s Hail-Hail Mary all depends on your perspective. That is what today’s column is about. You can read it for yourself at   ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ButteCast.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

This afternoon, the Knights of Columbus in Butte held a ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The event, which was organized by retired Butte firefighters Bernie Boyle and John Paul, was held in front of the KC’s 9/11 memorial in the Felix Madrazo Gym. It drew a standing-room crowd of more than 200. That includes members of the Butte Central football team, who to...

Today we are talking hurling with three members of the Wolfe Tones Hurling Club of Butte. Callie Boyle, Matt Moore and Ryan Mulcahy are not just part of that club. They might have taken up the game relatively recently, but the three seem to live and breathe the Irish national sport. It is their passion. Matt says he even dreams about hurling. Callie, Matt and Ryan are also always on the lookout fo...

Golf is the sport that I know the best. It is also the one I can, as a writer, put myself in the shoes of the competitor. That is because I was once in those shoes. I know what it was like to be written about as a golfer, both good and bad, and I work hard to make sure do young golfers justice in their stories. Last week, I received two emails. One was an angry rant from a dad who does not get it....

Today’s guest is one I have been hoping to land for a couple of years now. He is interesting, to say the least. Roy Ivy is a fellow Gen Xer who grew up in Texas and traveled around the world in a band before making his way to the Mining City. That came after stops in Chicago, where he played music, wrote movie reviews  and took part in the improv scene, and Missoula. On Sept. 9, 2001, Roy traveled...

Next Friday will mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. That day, Knights of Columbus Hall will hold a ceremony to mark the 25th anniversary of that fateful day. A 3:30 p.m. ceremony will include a blessing from Rev. Tom Haffey and remarks from Chief Executive J.P. Gallager, Sheriff Ed Lester and Butte-Silver Bow firefighter Derek Harvey. The ceremony will be held at the memorial, whic...

Golf is an unfair game, which makes it a lot like life. Just when you think you are sitting pretty in the fairway, you can shank a shot that goes right into the lumber yard. Golf can also tell you everything you need to know about a person. If you see someone cheat at golf, you know that is a person you should stay the heck away from. Likewise, if someone shows off integrity in the game of golf, h...

The past several years, Meagan Thompson of KXLF-TV has proven to be a fearless reporter who is not afraid to ask the tough questions. Last week, she took her camera into a homeless camp filled with potential danger to make sure she got all sides of a complicated story about a neighborhood fed up with transients, drugs and garbage. Meagan also brought to light the fight of Jamie Decker and Top Deck...

Today’s guest was a teammate of Hall of Famers at Butte Central. He went on to a Hall of Fame career in his own right. He competed on a BC basketball team that placed fourth at the Class A State tournament in Missoula in March of 1982. He was also a high jumper on a Central boys’ track team that brought home the team tile from Missoula that May. After graduating from Montana State University, Tim...

This column is not meant to trash congressional candidate Aaron Flint, even though I would never vote for him. It is not an endorsement of his opponent, Sam Forstang, either. I have never met Sam, and I have some questions for him. It is also not about whether the Montana Carpenters Union did the right thing by endorsing Flint, who has a history of pushing some pretty disgusting opinions on his ra...

He did not know it at the time, but one overtime loss turned out to be a very good thing for Cory Johnston. Johnston, a senior at Glasgow High School at the time, fell 1-0 to Danny Trujillo of Arlee in the 112-pound championship match of the Class B-C state wrestling tournament at the Billings Metra.  At the time, Johnston thought that was his last match. He could not, however, end his career like...

There is probably no need for an introduction for today’s guest. You know who Kelvin Sampson is. Currently, the 70-year-old Sampson is the head coach of the University of Houston’s highly-successful men’s basketball program. He’s won multiple national Coach of the Year awards, and he took the Cougars to the Final Four in 2021 and 2025. He also took Oklahoma to the Final Four in 2002. He coached at...