NRG Media’s KOOO-FM “The Big O” won’t be hanging bras over Omaha’s busiest street to raise breast cancer awareness – but it did get quite a bit of publicity for the non-stunt.
Local organizers of the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s Race for the Cure event in Omaha on October 2nd had planned to hang bras from a bridge over Dodge Street, said to be the city’s busiest thoroughfare, to raise awareness of breast cancer. KOOO was the partner for the event and one of the drop off points for the bras, which were afterward to be donated to a local mission.
But after the station and event got some favorable coverage from KETV-TV (ABC) on its newscast, the principal of a Catholic school complained to city officials, claiming it was inappropriate to display the undergarments where they could be seen by children. City officials stepped in to make sure that the even did not take place last Friday (9/18), saying that the organizers did not have a permit or the required $1 million liability insurance policy – and that a permit would not be issued even if it were properly applied for.
“I was crying all morning because I really wanted this to work,” the TV station quoted Race for the Cure organizer Shari Stone as saying after the cancellation.
KETV asked people to vote on its website about who was in the right. When RBR/TVBR checked, the votes were running about 2-1 in favor of KOOO and against the city officials.
