Radio show pulled after woman's death- Page 2

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 11:34am

They broadcast some of the clips from this show on today's local news. One of them was really disturbing - it went like this -

(from a registered nurse) "You know people can get very ill and possibly die from drinking too much water, it is called water intoxication".

(DJ) "Yes - we know. They all signed releases so we are not responsible".

Then another DJ was heard to say (althogh I don;t think it was to this caller - "Come on - the body is made up of 98% water - what harm could it actually be?".

[cheezedoodle]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 12:30pm

I just found this article from today's paper...

There were lots of reasons to think Jennifer Strange was in deep trouble after she spent hours guzzling in a water-drinking contest at a Sacramento radio station.

"I asked her, 'How do you feel?' " said Elidia Campos, one of 20 contestants. "She said, 'Oh, my God. I feel so awful, I'm about to pass out.' '

But the DJs at KDND-FM apparently figured that was her problem, wasn't it? It was her choice to enter Friday morning's contest. The hosts can be heard joking on an audiotape of Friday's show about how Strange's stomach was distended from drinking nearly 2 gallons of water, and they teased her and other contestants because they did not "look so good."

Told by another DJ that "We got a guy who's just about to die," one of the jocks had a quick response.

"Make sure he signs the release," he chortled, setting off gales of laughter in the studio.

It was, in short, typical dumbbell morning radio, featuring the kind of stupid stunts and heckling that have raised ratings on stations across the nation. It has certainly worked for KDND's "The Morning Rave," which has become one of Sacramento's top-rated drive-time shows. And if you found their antics mean and offensive, maybe you just weren't cool enough to get the joke.

Then Jennifer Strange died.

Twenty-eight years old, married and the mother of three, Strange had entered the "Hold your Wee for a Wii' contest to try to win a Nintendo Wii video game player for her kids. Contestants had to drink as much water as they could without going to the bathroom. What Strange didn't know was that after drinking so much water in a little over four hours, she'd given herself a deadly condition that the coroner would later say was consistent with water intoxication. She was found dead that afternoon in her Rancho Cordova home.

Strange was one of the original 20 contestants who were put in a room with one DJ separate from the studio where they could not hear on-air comments or callers. Once the contest was narrowed down to two, Strange and the eventual winner, Lucy Davidson, were brought into the studio.

None of the contestants had any idea what they had gotten themselves into.

"I thought it was just water," Campos says, "that it would just flush out my body. I just assumed that because it was a contest, everything would be checked out."

Hardly. As the contestants dropped out, it became clear that some of them were having serious health problems. Not that anyone at the station seemed concerned.

"There was a girl on the floor," says Campos, who made it to the final five. "She must have been there for an hour with her teeth chattering. They were heckling her."

"Your body is 98 percent water," one of the hosts remarked to his on-air audience. "Why can't you take in as much water as you want?"

Because, as many of us in the Bay Area learned two years ago, an excess of water creates a physical shutdown. Pleasant Hill college student Matt Carrington died in 2005 of water intoxication in a hazing incident at a Cal State Chico fraternity.

In fact, Carrington's case came up on Friday. Someone in the studio mentioned "that poor kid in college," but another DJ responded that Carrington "was doing other things."


Radio Stunt

[Magdalene]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 1:05pm

Sweet Q, lemonade is good for kidney stones also.

[Popular]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 3:05pm

This article I'm linking has video links (on the top left of page)of reaction from one of the morning hosts and the contest winner - but I can't watch cause I'm at work. Can anyone sum up their thoughts or link to the myspace page the host wrote on?
Article

[iHeartMyGeek]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 3:33pm

this brings up a really important question in our society. Where does personal responsibility end and social responsibility begin? Yes, this woman should have been a little more conscious of the risks of what she was getting into but shouldn't the DJs have been much ore aware and forthcoming about the dangers of an activity like guzzling huge amounts of water without letting it pass?

[Mattbrain]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 4:00pm

My God, these guys deserve what's coming to them. I mean, this is involuntary manslaughter we're dealing with.

Updated On: 1/18/07 at 04:00 PM

[Anakela]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 4:04pm

ok, I was totally just going to ask the same question that iheartmygeek just did-

this brings up a really important question in our society. Where does personal responsibility end and social responsibility begin?

but on the flip side- it's totally sad that she died, but she is the one that chose to participate. I mean, if someone in the Nathan's 4th of July hot dog eating contest choked and died, I wouldn't expect there to be a launch of a criminal investigation into it.

I've actually heard of water poisoning deaths before (I am a true crime junkie, there have been quite a few hazing water poisoning deaths over the years), but even then I just don't see the criminal aspect of what happened here.* But then again I am not a lawyer.



(* unless it comes out that she was locked in a room and not allowed to quit the contest or something, in which case I will totally retract this thought. But so far I haven't read anything like that.)
Updated On: 1/18/07 at 04:04 PM

[jenna2]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 4:26pm

I've spent some time working in commercial radio (I've since broken free, thank God,) and you'd be surprised how often stupid stunts are performed without anyone thinking about possible negative repercussions. Nine times out of ten, if I questioned an idea that sounded dangerous, I'd get the "Oh well, they're gonna sign waivers!" response from the higher powers...

That said, I really feel terrible for everybody involved.

[TheHumanTorch]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 5:14pm

my question is, first of all, the owners of the radio station must have signed off on this terrible idea, so did the okay it also? And if so shouldn't they hold the same accountability as the djs?

secondly, why the hell didn't they have a medic on site? was this a mainstream radio station?

[jenna2]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 7:14pm

The 'owners' of a corporate radio station are giant, faceless corporations. They don't know what happens are each individual station they own. Senior management at the station would have had to sign off on the stunt, but I doubt anything's happened to them. The ten people fired were likely all from the on-air and promotions departments.

And yeah, they probably SHOULD have had medics on site, but unless a stunt has a huge potential for harm, they're rarely called. It sounds like those running the contest were completely ignorant to the risks therein.

[Popular]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 7:51pm

They weren't ignorant to the risks. They knew there were risks. They chose to ignore them, probably thinking the chances of something like that actually happening were not large enough to spoil the "fun". I'm sure they feel awful about it, but it doesn't excuse how they brushed aside the warnings. I am, of course, just going by what the articles have said took place. I didn't hear the recording myself but it sounds like they were not only warned, but visually saw and personally heard complaints of suffering by the contestants themselves. I think at a certain point someone should've stopped it, apologized for their physical pain/discomfort, and given them all the prize.

The question of who is at fault is an interesting one. I mean, do you blame nintendo for calling it Wii? Clearly they only had a "hold your wee" contest because the name was catchy. That's an eggageration to make a point... the line of accountability is a fine one.

I'm still curious to know what the host wrote. Did anyone happen to find the myspace page they commented on?

Updated On: 1/18/07 at 07:51 PM

[WalkOn]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 9:09pm

The issue of responsibility is interesting.

But WE own the airwaves and WE decide what how they are used... (at least in theory). I don't think there is anyone out there who really wants our airwaves to be used for such foolish life-threatening competitions.

Even shows like FEAR FACTOR are off the air.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 9:29pm

Without being ignorant, is there anything a medic could have done after a person has reached a point of no return with the amount of water they drank (besides preventing them from drinking more).

[Anakela]

Posted: 1/18/07 at 11:36pm

I think at a certain point someone should've stopped it, apologized for their physical pain/discomfort, and given them all the prize.

But 'someone' could also be the contestant him/herself- someone from the radio station could have stopped the contest; someone in the contest could have quit.


The treatment for water intoxication can include diuretics and saline drips, if limit fluid intake (usually the first course of action) isn't working.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 11:24am

Dottie - I think they begin a saline intravenous drip with an electrolyte boost to try and stabilize the patient.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 12:31pm

D5W with Ringers Lactate, as Dixie McCall would say.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 1/19/07 at 2:41pm

The DJs should not have been fired. Stupid DJs do stupid things on the radio, every minute of every day, in this country, and stupid people love them for it. That's what they are hired to do. Station managers and program directors are responsible for what is allowed to go on the air. It is their responsibility to allow or not allow a "stunt" contest to be performed.