Glenn Beck Tuned In To 'Mayberry'

A week ago, television and radio personality Glenn Beck probably had never heard of Mount Airy, N.C.

But thanks to what Mayor Deborah Cochran described Monday as a “whirlwind” of events in recent days,

According to a story by Tom Joyce at mtairynews.com, Beck now could even be visiting this city after local interest was expressed in a proposed clothing-manufacturing venture of his.

“Have you ever seen as much fuss over anything?” added Cochran, who has even been interviewed by Beck on his radio show heard over some 300 stations nationwide.

As a result, the mayor and Martin Collins, the city’s community-development director, were assembling information on Mount Airy Monday afternoon to send to Beck’s New York office. The payoff could be 1,000 or so jobs being created locally.

“He wants us to send him more information and he said he also may want to come visit us,” Cochran said. “Of course, this is a tremendous marketing opportunity."

The connection between Glenn Beck and “Mayberry” was made toward the end of last week after an article was published Thursday in The Mount Airy News regarding a 1791 clothing brand Beck seeks to manufacture somewhere in the United States.

It focused on a campaign by Cochran and some private citizens to interest the conservative TV-radio host in Mount Airy as a possible location for the project, which would generate profits for a separate effort to aid disaster victims.

This included the mayor emailing Beck and telling him of the city’s plight due to a rash of textile mill closings and the accompanying availability of vacant industrial sites — the kind of situation Beck seeks to address.

The day after the story ran in The Mount Airy News, the local campaign was discussed by Beck on his morning radio show.

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