"She was in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" competition trying to win a Nintendo Wii video game system." In July 1998, two years after the sale of the station to Entercom (now Audacy, Inc . Also, when a caller who identified herself as a nurse warned that contestants could face illness or death, an on-air personality replied, 'Yeah, they signed releases so we're not responsible so it's okay.' After two weeks of deliberations, jurors last week found Entercom Sacramento LLC, a subsidiary of Philadelphia-based Entercom Communications Corp., liable for the actions of its employees at Sacramento radio station KDND-FM, the Associated Press reported. A California court found Sacramento radio station KDND-FM and its owner liable for the death in January 2007 of mother-of-three Jennifer Strange, 28. Station Vice President and General Manager John Geary issued a statement of sympathy on Tuesday. What happens to First Republic Bank's stock and deposits now? "At this time," it said, "we would like to express our deepest condolences to the family of Jennifer Strange. Family: Sadistic radio contest caused wrongful death of mom. Strange had showed fellow. It was not immediately know how much water Strange consumed. All rights reserved. Four members of the Chi Tau fraternity pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. The Strange family was represented by prominent Sacramento attorney Roger A. Dreyer of the firm of Dreyer, Babich, Buccola & Callaham, LLP. "Those people that are drinking all that water can get sick and possibly die from water intoxication," Brooks said, to which disc jockeys replied they "were aware of that" and that contestants had signed a release "so we're not responsible.". Now the Sacramento radio station could lose its licence. She dropped out of the contest, went home and died about six hours later. Strange suffered hyponatremia, or acute water intoxication. "Hold your Wee for a Wii." Contestants were given water at . Copyright 2023, Thomson Reuters. If the injury caused by the employee is simply one of the risks of the business, the employer will have to bear the responsibility. The participant who . The exact amount of water intake that can lead to water intoxication is unknown and varies with each individual. She was crying and that was the last that anyone had heard from her.. [33][34] Some later remarked on the physical discomfort they suffered during and following the event. Because as tragic as Strange's death was, other contestants on Friday were nearly as ill. "No one was more sick than anyone else," Campos says. However, the Federal Communications Commission has not acted in any way., Kevin Geary, a spokesman for KDNDs parent , Entercom Communications, said the events in 2007 were tragic. He also wrote about riding the Straight Talk Express with JohnMcCain during his first presidential bid, parachuting out of anairplane and running the Boston Marathon. [24] KXOA was sold to Entercom, which simultaneously acquired KSEG and KRXQ (93.7 FM) from Jacor Communications;[25] the two purchases, totaling $65million, gave Entercom a trio of rock-oriented radio stations. The "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" event drew participants who wanted to win a Wii video game console. By early 1975, the station had shifted to a soft AOR format, which would be successful throughout the remaining half of the 1970s. Terms of Service apply. A coroner ruled that her death was due to water intoxication. Hardly. During its existence, the Browns bought back KNDE and returned it to the fold as KXOA, to air a harder AOR mix. Ybarra said he quit after drinking five bottles. (provided by Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger). Jan. 13, 2007. http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/13/water.intox.ap/index.html, Special Offer on Antivirus Software From HowStuffWorks and TotalAV Security, The London Free Press: Sports drinks fight water intoxication. Ten minutes later, they had to drink another. Matthew Carrington of Pleasant Hill died after drinking huge amounts of water while pledging. We want to thank all of our listeners for their continued support and we ask that you join us by keeping Jennifer and her family in your thoughts and prayers.". Matthew Carrington was finishing a monthslong process to rush Chi Tau fraternity when he died. The FCC auctioned the frequency in 2021; iHeartMedia won the bidding, and KSTE-FM (now KZIS) began broadcasting on May 4, 2022. The participant who drank the most water without using the bathroom was promised a game console valued at $250. John Geary, vice president and general manager of Entercom/Sacramento, the parent company of KDND, sent an e-mail to reporters Tuesday stating that "effective immediately, the 'Morning Rave' program is canceled and 10 employees are no longer with the station.". [64], Entercom also paid the Media Action Center $35,000 for attorney fees involved in their petition to deny renewal; in return, the Media Action Center would not challenge other Entercom licenses or the CBS Radio acquisition. Ms. Strange's death led to a civil action for wrongful death, which settled after a jury entered a $16.5 million judgment against KDND. Not that anyone at the station seemed concerned. Campos wonders if she somehow could have intervened when Strange became very ill. 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. The Sacramento County coroner said preliminary autopsy findings indicated she died of water intoxication. [12] The station re-branded as Super Stereo K108, featuring Top 40 music and album-oriented rock (AOR) at night. The jury also found that Strange was 0% at fault (that is, there was no contributory negligence) for her own death. / CBS News. [68] The allocation was again put up for auction as part of FCC Auction 109 beginning July 27, 2021, and was auctioned off to iHeartMedia for $6,146,000.[69][70]. [60], KDND's format and The End branding were re-located to sister station KUDL at 9:00a.m. on February 6 (the last song before the move was "Scars to Your Beautiful" by Alessia Cara). A jury awarded $16,577,188 damages against KDND . code or county). To listen to conversations between the DJs and Jennifer Strange. [35] At one point, a nurse contacted the station and informed the DJs that the contest could be dangerous and potentially fatal. In severe cases of water intoxication, coma and death come fairly quickly as a result of brain swelling. Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: Julia Layton (10 pages), Drunk Floridian killed bird with Glock pistol, police charge. ", But the DJs at KDND-FM apparently figured that was her problem, wasn't it? Cells actively maintain a precise sodium concentration in the body. The first song on The End was Everybody by Backstreet Boys. Stay up-to-date with how the law affects your life. In January 2007, hours after competing in a radio station contest to win a Nintendo Wii, 28-year-old Jennifer Strange was found dead in her California home. Several years ago, when Nintendo first released the Wii gaming system a radio station had a promotion titled "Hold Your Wee for a Wii." Contestants periodically drank water to see who could refrain from urinating the longestthe winner would win a Wii gaming system. [67] The FCC included the 107.9 frequency in its auction scheduled to begin April 28, 2020, but the auction was indefinitely postponed on March 25, 2020, due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The prize was a Wii video game, worth $250, going to the person who drank most water without peeing. In cases of water intoxication, it is extreme hyponatremia that can ultimately cause coma and death. JANUARY 25--The family of the California woman who died from water intoxication after trying to win a video game console in a radio . Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. ", "Oh, it hurts," Strange said, while one male disc jockey remarked that she looked pregnant and another, a woman, said "That is so funny.". (AP Photo/Courtsey of the Carrington family via the San Francisco Chronicle) Ran on: 02-04-2005 According to a contestant, the waivers addressed only publicity issues and made no mention of health or safety concerns. Water intoxication: When a person drinks large quantities of water rapidly, the normal balance of electrolytes in the body can be diluted to the point that brain function is disturbed, leading to. This 10-year journey to the loss of a valuable broadcasting license in such a prominent market is not surprising, given the facts. The Sacramento Bee released audio clips from the morning show indicating that the disc jockeys were aware of the death of Matthew Carrington by water intoxication. They tried to drink as much water as they could without urinating in a bid to win a Nintendo Wii gaming console. They talked about their kids, watched a video on Campos' DVD player, and commiserated about how terrible they felt. display: none; Sodium is a positively charged ion, and its role in the body is to circulate the fluids outside of cells. about FindLaws newsletters, including our terms of use and privacy policy. } 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. "We were so out of it, so disoriented. Before the song was finished, KDND's transmitter was shut down on February 8 at 12:01a.m., bringing a close to the nearly 70-year history of the station. During the match, contestants were given two minutes to drink an 8-ounce bottle of water, then given another bottle to drink after a 10-minute break. Several years ago, a woman died in a radio contest called "Hold your Wee for a Wii" where she tried to drink more water than any other contestant in order to win a video game console. We are awaiting information that will help explain how this tragic event occurred, he said. http://chemistry.about.com/cs/5/f/blwaterintox.htm, "Hyponatremia." Other symptoms include headaches, muscle weakness and convulsions. Once the contest was narrowed down to two, Strange and the eventual winner, Lucy Davidson, were brought into the studio. Under normal circumstances, accidentally consuming too much water is . "Like, a nurse called.". [2] For most of this time, KXOA simulcast the AM station, which since its launch had been an affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System. Strange had showed fellow contestants photographs of her two sons and daughter, for whom she was hoping to win the Nintendo Wii. [13] Art Schroeder, the KXOA-FM program director during this period, credited the "safe" approach with attracting many listeners not wishing to hear punk rock. [2] The construction permit was granted on December 19, 1945, but changes in program planning and technical adjustments in the early days of the present 88108MHz band meant that the station debuted at 102.9MHz in June 1947 before being moved to 107.9MHz within months. [37], After the contest, Strange spoke to a co-worker by telephone, indicating she was on her way home and in extreme pain, suffering from what appeared to be an intense headache. reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and According to the AP, Jennifer Strange, a mother of three children, died of acute water intoxication. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000394.htm, Lillis, Ryan. NYPD officer Troy Patterson dies 33 years after being shot in robbery She was found dead at her home about five hours later. } [21] The Arrow format challenged KSEG (96.9 FM) and KHYL (101.1 FM). Billy Strange said adjusting to life without the wife and mother was "a one step at a time process.". [30], On January 12, 2007, KDND's morning show, the Morning Rave, held an on-air contest entitled Hold Your Wee for a Wii, in which contestants were asked to drink as much water as they could without urinating. At the time of the incident, Laura Rios, one of Strange's co-workers at Radiological Associates of Sacramento said Strange "said to one of our supervisors that she was on her way home and her head was hurting her real bad She was crying and that was the last that anyone had heard from her.". Each contestant had to drink an 8-ounce (226.8-gram) bottle of water within two minutes. Jennifer Strange, 28, was found dead Friday in her suburban Rancho Cordova home hours after taking part in the Hold Your Wee for a Wii contest in which KDND 107.9 promised a Nintendo Wii video game system for the winner. [50], The former "Morning Rave" hosts went on other radio jobs in different markets; Cox hosted mornings at KRBB in Wichita, Kansas,[51] and as of 2021, was working at KPLD in St. George, Utah. [6][7] However, the Rhodes group did not materialize, and three months later, Fuqua filed to sell the station to a consortium consisting of Drake-Chenault, a national program syndicator, and Brown Broadcasting, which owned KGB-AM-FM in San Diego. Calif. jury awards $16M in radio contestant death, Employer Liability for an Employee's Bad Acts, From Waterboarding to Employee Harassment: Liability for Employees' Bad Acts, "Hold Your Wee For a Wii" Death Brings Big Verdict, Do I Have a Wrongful Death Case? Jennifer Strange's death should be a warning to other reckless corporations. [37] On January 17, the Los Angeles Times reported that Sacramento Sheriff John McGinness had ordered homicide detectives to investigate whether a crime had been committed. [1] In July 1957, KXOA dropped Mutual to become a Top 40-format music station; later that year, the KXOA stations were sold to Cal-Val Radio. She then called in sick at work and died in her bathroom just hours after the contest. The Sacramento news stations report water intoxication. You would be surprised by the amount of people who die yearly from . [52] Maney hosts mornings on WNKS in Charlotte, and Sweet hosted mornings on WPLJ in New York City under the name Jayde Donovan until the station's sale in 2019; she now hosts a show on Apple Music 1 and a show syndicated through Westwood One. His latest book is Crouching Father, HiddenToddler: A Zen Guide for New Dads., A stupid radio stunt's tragic finale / Sacramento DJs joked as contestant guzzled fatal quantity of water, In this undated photo provided by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Jennifer Strange, of Rancho Cordova, Calif., is shown. Wilson said a jury had held the radio station liable for Stranges death, but the FCC has shown "no inclination" to go after its broadcast license despite calls from the victims family for sanctions against the station. Without electrolytes, the body can't function (see What are electrolytes? When a person dies from hyponatremia as a result of water intoxication, the initiating factor is a severe sodium imbalance that causes massive cell damage. After he quit, he said, the remaining contestants, including Strange, were given even bigger bottles to drink. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}384236N 1212859W / 38.710N 121.483W / 38.710; -121.483. In all, hecovered eight Olympic Games, from Australia to Spain to Korea. her family is suing the company that owns the. Someone in the studio mentioned "that poor kid in college," but another DJ responded that Carrington "was doing other things. Among the fired employees were three morning disc jockeys. KDND (107.9 MHz) was an FM radio station licensed to Sacramento, California, United States.The station first signed on in 1947 as KXOA-FM, an FM simulcast of AM station KXOA, before separating itself with distinct programming, including most prominently soft rock, adult contemporary, and classic hits formats. John Geary, vice president and marketing manager for Entercom Sacramento, the stations owner, said station personnel were stunned when they heard of Stranges death. That triggered two others to throw up, although it didn't help when one of the DJs made retching sounds to encourage heaving. She was reported to have drunk about seven quarts (6-1/2 liters) of water in a bid to win the Wii for her children. [56][57], On February 2, 2017, Entercom announced its intent to acquire CBS Radio. You've probably heard the term electrolyte before, whether in reference to sports drinks (which provide electrolytes in addition to fluids) or to certain conditions, such as bulimia or diarrhea, that cause dangerous "electrolyte imbalances" in the body. As a sports columnist, he climbed the ski jump at the Norway Olympics,ate bee larvae in Japan and skied in the French Alps. Originally, the sheriff had said that because the contestants entered under their own free will, there might have been no crime. A Nintendo Wii video game was the prize for winning the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest. Dreyer charged that even after getting phone calls -- one from a nurse -- the DJs did not pass along information about the dangers of drinking too much water to the contestants. $3 million fentanyl shipment to Maine restaurant prompts arrest The game console sells for about $250. Format will move down the dial ahead of planned merger", "CBS Sets Radio Division Merger With Entercom", "CBS and Entercom Are Merging Their Radio Stations", "Sue from Fiddletown took a stand in the public interest", "Entercom settles with media watchdog over license dispute", "FCC Report 2/9: Reminding 107.9 Sacramento Applicants Of Short-Spacing Protections", "Delay of Auction of FM Broadcast Construction Permits", "FCC Auction 109 Comes to an End; iHeartMedia Wins 107.9 Sacramento", "Amendment to a New FM Full Power Construction Permit Application", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=KDND&oldid=1150926302, "The End" (station located at the right end of American FM broadcast spectrum), KXOA-FM (1945-1961, 19621971, 19781997), This page was last edited on 20 April 2023, at 20:48. A rather strange bit of news has leaked out today about a radio station in California. }, First published on October 30, 2009 / 9:58 AM. Another joke. A preliminary autopsy indicated that Jennifer Strange, 28, died from water intoxication after participating in KDND-FM 107.9's on-air "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest Friday. She died because of her participation in a radio contest called "Hold Your Wee for a Wii.". Other symptoms include headaches, muscle weakness and convulsions. A radio station fired 10 employees, including its three morning disc jockeys, after a woman died following an on-air water-drinking contest last week. [55] In October 2016, the FCC designated Entercom's license renewal for KDND for hearing, disputing whether the station had operated in the public interest over its previous license term, spanning from 2005 to 2013. how to read a teacher salary schedule georgia, most liberal cities in georgia, list of soldiers at bunker hill,
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