Anthony "Tony" Cashman was born April 28, 1923 in Edmonton, Alberta. In 1927 the family moved to Spokane, Washington, in 1929 to Glendale, California, in 1932 to a cottage on the Columbia River, 40 miles east of Portland, Oregon, and in 1933 to Alameda, California. The family returned to Edmonton after the death of Cashman's father on April 1, 1934. While in Edmonton, Cashman attended Grandin School and St. Joseph's High School. He served in the Second World War from 1942-1945 as a navigator, before studying for three years at Notre Dame University in South Bend Indiana. He returned to Edmonton in 1949 and began a career as a journalist, author and broadcaster.

In 1953, Cashman began a series of one minute broadcasts three times a week entitled, "Edmonton Stories" for CJCA radio. The stories illustrated Edmonton's history and were soon moved to a ten minute format. They featured the voices of notable Edmontonians such as Bill Lee, Phil Lloyd, Alt Eton, and Johnny Mackin. Between 1953 and 1962, Cashman produced 726 stories for CJCA. From 1964 to 1966, Cashman produced and broadcast 275 one minute historical vignettes, written for the Life Insurance Company of Alberta, on various radio stations in Alberta. He also wrote 204 stories while hosting the radio program "Sunday Fantasia" for CJCA from 1961 - 1969.

In 1956, W. Clarence Richards of the Institute for Applied Art published his first book Edmonton Stories based on Cashman's radio broadcasts. Since 1954, Cashman himself has written numerous books including: Singing Wires: the telephone in Alberta (1972), The Best Edmonton Stories, (1976), and Edmonton: Stories from the River City (2002).

In addition to his work as an author, Cashman worked as a station manager for CKUA radio, as a reporter for the Edmonton Journal, and as an historian and curator of the Alberta Government Telephones Museum.

Tony Cashman married Genevieve Mary Costello in August 1950 and they have three sons: Hal, Bernard, and Paul.