Town featured in national broadcast

Whether it was the nationally-ranked public school system, the miles of shoreline or the reputation for being friendly toward relocating industries, the town of Mooresville recently gained the attention of a national show hosted by broadcaster and former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw.

“Today in America with Terry Bradshaw” features small towns that offer a high quality of life. Mooresville was featured on an episode in late December.

That segment is expected to be shown many more times in the coming months. It’s also viewable on the town’s website and Facebook page.

In November 2011, producers with the show approached Mooresville town officials about featuring the community.

“Year after year, we’re recognized as a top micropolitan community. That catches people’s attention,” Mooresville town spokeswoman Kim Sellers said.

Over the course of several months, town officials worked with producers to identify the town’s best assets and draft a script.

In June 2012, producers with the show came out to shoot footage over two days, featuring the school district, the lake, local businesses and town hall.

“It was a long couple of days, but I really enjoyed it,” Jessica Stewart, existing industry and marketing manager for Mooresville South Iredell Economic Developer Corp., said.

Gus Gustafson, a fishing guide on Lake Norman and columnist for the Observer, was featured on the segment after offering to take producers out on the lake on his boat to get some water shots.

He recalled how the producers wanted to get a shot of him catching a fish for the segment but were initially skeptical he’d be able to catch one very quickly.

“I just told them to keep rolling the film,” he said. “On the third cast, I caught a fish. The people in the boat just shook their heads – they couldn’t believe we caught a fish that fast.”

After the two-day filming session, producers left to splice together town footage with Bradshaw’s commentary in the studio.

Near the end of December, the video aired for the first time locally.

According to the town’s contract, however, the video is expected to broadcast nationally on FOX Business News and 19 times regionally through a combination of CNN Headline News and regional news networks in up to 15 markets, Sellers said.

Those segments are guaranteed to be broadcast between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.

The town also has unlimited rights to use the five-minute segment featuring Mooresville.

Stewart said she plans to use the business to pitch the town of Mooresville to businesses considering locating there.

Sellers said she was pleased with the quality of the video – something she said town staff wouldn’t have been able to do on their own.

She plans to leverage the video as a way to emphasize what a recent town survey has shown: that “Mooresville is a great place to live, work and play.”

That survey, conducted by the National Citizen Survey in towns across the country, found that 85 percent of Mooresville residents rated quality of life as “excellent” or “good.”

“Right now, we are enjoying the attention. It’s always nice when people from outside our area look at our community and say, ‘That’s a great place to be.’ It validates all the work that we do.”