BONUS EPISODE: Lost & Found Sound of the "Magic Radio Santa" of Centralia, Washington

26/11/2025 17 min
BONUS EPISODE: Lost & Found Sound of the "Magic Radio Santa" of Centralia, Washington

Listen "BONUS EPISODE: Lost & Found Sound of the "Magic Radio Santa" of Centralia, Washington"

Episode Synopsis

On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel presents archival sound from two radio stories he produced in search of the "Magic Radio Santa" of Centralia, Washington. The Magic Radio Santa appeared for decades on radio station KELA in the southwest part of the Evergreen State from the late 1940s until the 1970s, reading Christmas letters and wish lists of presents from local children.

The first part of this episode is from December 2018, when Banel produced a story for a Seattle radio station about a piece of vintage sound from 1950 – a giant, 16-inch diameter recording of a broadcast by Centralia’s “Magic Radio Santa.” The second part is from December 2022, when Banel presented an update to a search - described in part one - for the kids mentioned in the 1950 recording. The other voice alongside Feliks from the 2018 and 2022 audio is Dave Ross. The original 1950 recording came from John Jenkins at SPARK Museum in Bellingham, Washington.

CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly streams everywhere via www.space101fm.org. The radio station broadcasts from studios at historic Magnuson Park – located in the former Master-at-Arms’ quarters in the old Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

Subscribe to the CASCADE OF HISTORY podcast via most podcast platforms and never miss regular weekly episodes of Sunday night broadcasts as well as frequent bonus episodes.

More episodes of the podcast Cascade of History