On this bonus ERUPTION episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with John Erickson and Mike Beard who covered the first eruption of Mount St. Helens for radio station KGW in Portland, Oregon on March 27, 1980. Erickson was news director and Beard was a reporter who just happened to be airborne over the mountain on the day of that first eruption 45 years ago. The two worked together to get Beard on the air and spread the news to Portland and the world that Mount St. Helens had awakened from a century or more of slumber. The more destructive - and deadly - eruption would come less than two months later.

CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly streaming everywhere via space101fm.org. The radio station is located at historic Magnuson Park - formerly Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

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