My late Grandma Mary D’Arcy gets all the credit.

Or, perhaps, she should take all the blame.

Whether it turns out good or bad, the origins of my new podcast go back to a talk with my mom’s mom a little more than four years ago.

Grandma Mary was closing in on her 98th birthday when Ron Davis let me host the long-running show Partyline on KBOW on April 11, 2018.

My grandma and I sat and talked live on the radio for the full hour of the show. She talked about our family and brought up some great old stories about Butte.

Surprisingly, she even said a word that she was not supposed to say on the radio.

Even though I am as smooth as chunky peanut butter on the air, it really turned out to be a great hour of radio.

Grandma Mary passed away about four months later, two years and change before her planned 100th birthday party at the Butte Civic Center. Having that long conversation recorded so we can listen to it for decades to come, however, gave me some comfort after she passed.

Two years later, I got the idea to take that to the next level.

During the early days of the pandemic shutdown in the spring of 2020, I wrote a really long story on Brian Morris, the Butte Central football legend who is now the Chief United States District Judge of the Unite States District Court for the District of Montana.

After talking with Judge Morris on the phone for more than an hour, I was bummed that I did not record the conversation.

“That,” I said to myself, “would have been a great podcast.”

I felt the same way several months later when I had long conversations with Butte sports legends Don Douglas, Gary Kane and Julie (Leary) Nadeau.

While I got to tell the story of Judge Morris’ playing days at Butte Central and Stanford University, I figured it would have also been cool to let everyone hear the judge in his own words.

The same goes for Douglas, Kane and Nadeau. I really love how their stories turned out, but I always felt those conversations should have been heard.

So, this week, I officially launch the ButteCast with Bill Foley. It is a podcast about the people and characters of the Mining City. I have a very long list of people I want to have conversations with, and I plan on getting to every last one of them.

Some of them more than once.

The first episode features Don Peoples Sr., who recalled what it was like to be the chief executive of Butte-Silver Bow after the mines closed in Butte in 1982.

Peoples is probably the most important Butte person in my lifetime, and it was important to me that I began the podcast with him.

Coming up will be the second-best journalist the Mining City ever produced, my favorite singer, a Navy SEAL who shot a bad guy — thrice — and a state and regional champion baseball coach, just to name a few. 

There are a whole lot more, too. There are so many great people from Butte around the world, and their stories must be told.

Once in a while, we might also venture outside of the “Holey City.” I’m hoping the Bill Foley from the Bill Foley Band will bite.

Last month, I left my job as editor of ButteSports.com, where I had worked for the last 10 years. Other than cheering for the Yankees (because of former Butte Copper King Cecil Fielder was playing for the Evil Empire) in the 1996 World Series, it was the hardest move I ever made.

I love everything about Butte Sports. I love the way the website looks, and I loved being the guy in charge of it.

Of course, one of the great perks of the job was being able to be on the sidelines of Butte High, Butte Central and Montana Tech games and getting to know the athletes.

I hope the ButteCast will help others get to know some of those athletes like I do.

In addition to my podcast, I also have a new website, ButteCast.com. There you will find information about the podcast, which will be available on Spotify and hopefully everywhere else you find your podcasts, and a weekly column. 

Thanks to my friends Linda Anderson and Robin Jordan, the column will again appear each week in The Butte Weekly.

Since I burned myself out so much trying to cover every single sporting event in the Mining City, I have no plans to cover games.

For one thing, I cannot do that to myself again. Also, I do not want to compete against Butte Sports. It is where I still go to get all my information about all things sports in Butte.

Plus, who am I to try to compete against the great Bruce Sayler? 

I did not think I would go back to writing columns again this quickly, but I realized after a few weeks off that I just have to. Writing columns is so much fun, and it is also my therapy.

Believe me, I need a lot of therapy.

Also, my wife is selfishly refusing to get a second job, so I cannot retire just yet.

Hopefully you will check out my new website and my new podcast. Hopefully you will tell a friend or two. Or 3,000. 

Hopefully you will enjoy all the stories about Butte, America and beyond.

If you don’t, well, you can blame it on my Grandma Mary.

—Bill Foley, who blames his grandma for everything, writes a column that will appear every Tuesday on ButteCast.com. Email him at foles74@gmail.com.