PBS show ‘Under the Radar’ stops in Mount Pleasant to showcase downtown stories

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Jim Edelman and Tom Daldin know there’s no shortage of bad news around Michigan.

The longtime friends, who pitched and produce the show “Under the Radar Michigan” for PBS, stopped by downtown Mount Pleasant on Tuesday to interview business owners, among others, and showcase a different side of the city for an upcoming episode.

“It’s one of Michigan’s great college towns,” said Daldin, the show’s host. “The whole philosophy behind the show is we’re trying to change the perception a lot of people have of Michigan.”

Throughout Tuesday, Michelle Sponseller, downtown development director, toured the district with Daldin and Edelman to “give them a flavor of downtown.”

She said the duo approached Mount Pleasant a few months ago, after following downtown’s Facebook page and keeping up with the region’s events. Tuesday’s timing worked, she said, given the unusually warm January weather.

Among the things she spoke of with UTR, Sponseller said, was downtown’s history — something the city continues to try and promote.

“We have in the city what’s called a revolving loan fund and it’s a low-interest 2-percent loan that we’ve used to help folks dress up their buildings,” she said. “But we want to keep the historical character as best we can.”

Some of the places, or what Sponseller called downtown’s “unusual spots,” that UTR visited included The Brass Café & Saloon, 128 S. Main St., and Camille’s on the River, 506 W. Broadway St. They also visited The Flour Uprising, 112 N. Main St., where co-owner Annette Pratt was readying her on-camera appearance around lunchtime.

She said she’d planned to talk about the store’s October 2010 opening while making “whoopie pies,” a small cake sandwich with a cream center.

When she heard from UTR on Friday, Pratt said she had no problem participating because of the good it could do for downtown.

“That’s what it means for me — people coming, supporting local businesses,” she said. “They originally called in October or November and said they were going to come down. They talked to (Sponseller) … and I think she must’ve suggested us.”

Both Edelman and Daldin said they thought it would have been “wrong” not to come to Mount Pleasant. At its simplest, Daldin said UTR’s purpose is to “tell the great stories.”

UTR is in its second season, Edelman said, and picks up footage of towns and neighborhoods all around the state.

The footage gathered Tuesday is for an episode that will air sometime in the spring, he said. This episode will concentrate on downtown, he said, and isn’t a full tapestry of the whole city.

Because of this, Edelman said, they plan to return to Mount Pleasant in the warmer months.

“When you tell the story of a city, you’re only telling three to five stories,” he said. “You know there’s a lot more than that. We don’t try to tell the entire city’s story in one 11-minute segment.”