Feliks Banel presents a special Christmas 2024 episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY, revisiting archival sounds from the 2010 Christmas broadcast of "Swing Years and Beyond" as produced and hosted by Amanda Wilde on KUOW 94.9 FM. "Swing Years" left the airwaves in 2017 and is still deeply missed, so it's very exciting to send out the voice of Ms. Wilde and her Christmas music selections over the FM airwaves once again (and via the livestream) for Christmas 2024 on CASCADE OF HISTORY. At the end of the show, we also sneak in a little tribute to American bandleader Glenn Miller, who disappeared 80 years ago - just before Christmas 1944, on a flight between England and France.

This edition of CASCADE OF HISTORY was broadcast at 8pm Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, December 22, 2024 via SPACE 101.1 FM and streaming via space101fm.org from studios at historic Magnuson Park – formerly Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Feliks Banel's guests on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY from Candy Cane Lane in Seattle include roving correspondent/field producer Ken Zick; Vincent "Mister Candy Cane Lane" Miller on the origins of the grassroots decoration project; Phil Edlund with an update on Parkland School, now open once again and serving as a community center; Dan Evans, Jr., son of Daniel J. Evans, three-term Washington governor who passed away earlier this year, helping share a recording from 1970 of Governor Evans reading "'Twas The Night Before Christmas" for KVI Radio; Candy Cane Lane recent-arrival Dave Kubiak on the year-round charms of the street also known as Park Road; and Nick Biermann with an update on saving the Ryan House in Sumner.

Special thanks to members of the Roosevelt Caroling Club and Northwest Girlchoir who performed carols during the show; extra-special thanks to Joseph and Dana Manalang for hospitably allowing this live broadcast to originate from their front porch in the heart of Candy Cane Lane.

This LIVE broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY from Candy Cane Lane in Seattle was originally presented at 8pm Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, December 15, 2024 via SPACE 101.1 FM and streaming live 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.

Feliks Banel presents an encore broadcast of a special Christmas episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY, drawing on the archives of “The Holiday Express,” a live Christmas Eve show he produced and hosted on KBCS 91.3 from 1999 to 2004. Highlights include J.P. Patches reading “The Night Before Christmas,” and a 2002 recording of Seattle Mariners’ broadcasters Rick Rizzs and the late Dave Niehaus reading “Gift of the Magi” and splitting the duties as if it were an inning of baseball – plus plenty of vintage and local audio surprises!

This encore broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY was broadcast at 8pm Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, December 8, 2024 via SPACE 101.1 FM and streaming via space101fm.org from studios at historic Magnuson Park – formerly Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Feliks Banel presents a live broadcast featuring rare and one-of-a-kind Northwest Christmas radio and other audio gems, as well as a few national and international ones, too. We dig deep into the archives for songs and stories from J.P. Patches and Gertrude, Pat O'Day, Stan Boreson, Jeff Renner, Charles Herring and many, many more -- including the Garfield High School 1963 Christmas LP, vintage Union Pacific Seattle radio ad, Beatles' 1963 fan club Christmas record, and Ed Murrow's Christmas Eve 1940 broadcast from London.

This LIVE broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY was originally presented at 8pm Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, December 1, 2024 via SPACE 101.1 FM and streaming live via space101fm.org at historic Magnuson Park - formerly Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

On the 53rd anniversary of the infamous skyjacking, Feliks Banel's guests on this encore episode of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Eric Ulis, D.B. Cooper expert, searcher and researcher with a lesson in 'D.B. Cooper 101,' and roving correspondent Ken Zick, who joined 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, considered the city's founders, on November 13, 1851. SPOILER ALERT: It was rainy and windswept back then, too.

This encore broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY was presented at 8pm Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, November 24, 2024 via SPACE 101.1 FM and streaming live via space101fm.org from studios at historic Magnuson Park – formerly Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

On this special holiday encore broadcast from December 2023, 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 (before we knew Burgermaster would ultimately lease the space); and we hear the first installment in the 1951 vintage “Blackie of Naches Valley” episode of the Seattle centennial educational radio program “Their Name Was Courage.”

This encore broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY was presented at 8pm Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, November 17, 2024 via SPACE 101.1 FM and streaming live via space101fm.org from studios at historic Magnuson Park – formerly Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

On this special holiday season 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 "A Homefront Christmas," an original radio play first broadcast on KIXI AM 880 in Seattle in December 2001.

Wedes and Newman played a washed up vaudeville act who are coaxed out of retirement to put on a show to cheer up the homefront in Seattle. The action is set in 1941 just after Pearl Harbor, and also stars Tracey Conway, Dave Dolacky and Bob Brooks. Sound effects were performed by David Persson; music was pre-recorded especially for the show by Stan Boreson. "A Homefront Christmas" was written, produced and directed by Feliks Banel, and recorded before a live audience at the old Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) in Seattle a few hours before the broadcast.

This broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY was presented at 8pm Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, November 10, 2024 via SPACE 101.1 FM and streaming live via space101fm.org from studios at historic Magnuson Park – formerly Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

TECHNICAL NOTE: The podcast edition of this program includes approximately four minutes of additional material which did not fit into the one-hour broadcast format.

Feliks Banel's guests on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY include roving correspondent Ken Zick LIVE from the XXX in Issaquah where Burgermaster is now operating a food truck; John Mackie of The Vancouver Sun on the Skytrain cars from the original "Expo Line" of 1986 which will be taken out of service in the near future; Michael Sullivan on his discovery of vintage photos that show a 1920s movie production with ties to Tacoma and his quest for more clues; and Heather Brammer of Friends of Lake Court Apartments on their upcoming presentation to the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board about the 1926 apartment in Seattle's Madison Park neighborhood. We also listened to Jon Pontrello's soon-to-be-released recording of "Roll On, Kalakala."

This LIVE broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY was originally presented at 8pm Pacific Standard Time on Sunday, November 3, 2024 via SPACE 101.1 FM and streaming live via space101fm.org at historic Magnuson Park - formerly Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Feliks Banel’s guests on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY are Dylan High from the Washington State Historical Society on his work on a statewide project to inventory monuments and facilitate public discussion around the state; Mary Schaff, Northwest Librarian at the Washington State Library on the new online collection of Guy Reed Ramsey's history of post offices in the Evergreen State; and Benjamin Helle of the Washington State Archives on Archives Month and some recent interesting finds in the collection.

We also played the final installment - Act III - of Stan Freberg's "Oregon! Oregon!" centennial comic opera from 1959.

This LIVE broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY was originally presented at 8pm Pacific Daylight Time on Sunday, October 27, 2024 via SPACE 101.1 FM and streaming live via space101fm.org from studios at historic Magnuson Park – formerly Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Feliks Banel’s guests on this live broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY are a panel of expert local historians, researchers and authors who have been collaborating on a search for evidence of Peter Kirk's long-ago steel mill on Rose Hill, east of downtown Kirkland near the Costco. Matt McCauley, Kent Sullivan, Saundra Middleton (who is a descendant of Peter Kirk) and Michael Donnelly have been studying archives, maps, photos and other materials to paint a vivid picture of the partial construction of the mill in the 1890s, the specific whereabouts of various buildings and structures, as well as the ultimate fate of the site (and of Kirk's venture) in the early 20th century.

The group will be presenting two free illustrated public programs at Heritage Hall in Kirkland in October and November. The first will take place Wednesday, October 30 at 7:00 pm; the second will take place on Wednesday, November 20 at 7:00 pm.

More information: https://kirklandhistory.org/

We also played some vintage audio from Tony Ventrella, the beloved local broadcaster who passed away on Saturday, October 19, 2024 at age 80.

This LIVE broadcast of CASCADE OF HISTORY was originally presented at 8pm Pacific Daylight Time on Sunday, October 20, 2024 via SPACE 101.1 FM and streaming live via space101fm.org from studios at historic Magnuson Park – formerly Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.