Seems holding your wee to win a Wii wasn't such a bright idea.

The strange case of Jennifer Strange:

Jennifer Lea Strange was a 28-year-old woman who apparently died of water intoxication on January 12, 2007, after taking part in a Sacramento, California, radio station's water-drinking contest. Strange, along with twenty other participants, took part in a contest held by KDND-FM's "Morning Rave" show called "Hold Your Wee for a Wii," where the winner would win a Wii, a popular and difficult-to-obtain Nintendo video game console. The winner was the one who could consume the most water without urinating. Strange won second place; it was not immediately known how much water Strange consumed, however other contestants speculate that Strange drank up to two gallons of water .

Her mother found the body in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova, California, after Strange called her supervisor at her job to say she was heading home in terrible pain. Preliminary autopsy findings have ruled the death was due to water intoxication.

During the contest, a nurse identified as Eva called the show and gave an on-air warning that drinking too much water is hazardous and potentially deadly. The disk jockeys rebuffed the nurse, jokingly saying the contestants signed waivers. (According to a contestant, the waivers addressed only publicity issues and made no mention of health or safety concerns.) In addition, the DJs ridiculed the contestants, making fun of the severe discomfort of the participants and offering no assistance. According to one contestant, they heckled another contestant on the floor whose teeth were chattering. They also made reference to the 2005 case of Matt Carrington, who died of water intoxication in a fraternity hazing incident at Chico State University, but they also shrugged off any significance to this contest.

On January 15, 2007, the Morning Rave radio show was suspended, and the next day the three hosts of the show and seven other employees were fired. The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office is also investigating possible criminal charges against the DJs and producers of the show. Jennifer Strange's immediate family, a husband and three children, announced they will sue the radio station for wrongful death.

Sacramento sheriff investigates death of radio station contestant
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... 915S38.DTL

By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer

Thursday, January 18, 2007

(01-18) 01:18 PST SACRAMENTO, (AP) --

As participants in KDND-FM's water-drinking contest chugged bottle after bottle, a listener called in to warn the disc jockeys that the stunt was dangerous — and could be fatal.

"Yeah, we're aware of that," one of them responded.

Another DJ laughed: "Yeah, they signed releases, so we're not responsible. We're OK."

Those comments, and others made during the Jan. 12 "Morning Rave" radio show, appeared to give little regard to the risk of water intoxication — until a woman died just hours after imbibing nearly two gallons in that contest.

On Wednesday, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department launched a criminal investigation into the incident, and attorneys for the family of Jennifer Lea Strange said they plan to file a wrongful death lawsuit against KDND. Details of the suit were to be announced Thursday.

Authorities decided to pursue the investigation after listening to a tape of the Jan. 12 show, obtained by The Sacramento Bee, during which DJs joked about the possible dangers of consuming too much water, sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran said. At one point, they even alluded to a Chico college student who died during a similar hazing stunt in 2005.

"Hey Carter, is anybody dying in there?" a DJ asks during the show. "We got a guy who's just about to die," the other responds, and all the DJs laugh.

"I like that we laugh about that," another says.

"Make sure he signs the release. ... Get the insurance on that, please."

Strange, a 28-year-old mother of three, was one of about 18 contestants who tried to win a Nintendo Wii gaming console by determining how much water they could drink without going to the bathroom. The show's DJs called the contest "Hold your Wee for a Wii."

Several hours into the contest, Strange was interviewed on the air and complained that her head hurt.

"They keep telling me that it's the water. That it will tell my head to hurt and then it will make me puke," she says.

"Who told you that? The intern?" a DJ asks.

"Yeah," Strange responds. "It hurts, but it makes you feel lightheaded."

"This is what it feels like when you're drowning," one of the DJs says. "There's a lot of water inside you."

Eventually, Strange gave in and decided to accept the second-place prize: tickets to a Justin Timberlake concert. She commented that she looked pregnant, and a female DJ agreed.

"Oh, my gosh, look at that belly. That's full of water," a male DJ said. "Come on over, Jennifer, you OK?" the DJ asks. "You going to pass out right now? Too much water?"

Strange tells the talk show hosts that she could "probably drink more if you guys could pick me up."

Several hours later, Strange was found dead in her home. The Sacramento County coroner said preliminary autopsy findings indicate she died of water intoxication.

Lucy Davidson, who won the contest, told CNN's Larry King Live on Wednesday that she was very sick after participating.

"I was barely able to make it home. My head was as big as probably three basketballs. It was very, very painful," Davidson said.

On Tuesday, KDND's parent company, Entercom/Sacramento, fired 10 employees connected to the contest, including three morning disc jockeys. The company also took the morning show off the air.

Station spokesman Charles Sipkins said Wednesday that the company had not yet heard from the sheriff's department.

"We will, of course, cooperate with their investigation," he said.

Sipkins added that the station also is examining the circumstances surrounding Strange's death.

"We're trying to do everything we can to deal with it in a respectful and responsible way," he said.

In February 2005, Matthew Carrington died after drinking too much water in a fraternity hazing incident at Chico State University. One fraternity member later pleaded guilty to felony involuntary manslaughter and two others pleaded guilty to being accessories to manslaughter, among other charges.

In a prepared statement last weekend, Strange's husband, William, described his wife's generous nature and outgoing personality.

"Friday, Jennifer was just her bright, usual self," he said. "She was trying to win something for her family that she thought we would enjoy."

They've been talking about this story on Dudley & Bob down here in Austin. The DJ's involved(in the contest) are joking about how you could die on the air.

Sad and stupid.

Really. You don't know who to get upset with first.

Wow, I'd heard about this, and I just figured the station didn't know any better. But it sounds like they were aware of the dangers and laughed them off. That actually sounds criminal.

From what I've read in other places, what gets you is electrolyte imbalance, so everybody would have been OK if they'd had gatorade every third bottle or so.

Where are the lawyers in the house? Rob?

It used to be a form of torture in those evil primitive days when they didn't know any better ...
I thought that what happens is that your blood gets so watered down it can't function properly - mind you I also believed that if you swallowed chewing gum it stuck your lungs together.
Whatever, its very nasty.

'Too much' is an interesting concept. There really is a 'too much' of everything, water included. The emergence of rave culture over here in Britain in the late 80s and early 90s saw people taking 'too much' Ecstasy. The ramifications of that are yet to be fully realised. However, the advice dished out to my generation was "...and always drink plenty of water at these raves". The amount of deaths caused by people (admittedly, out-of-their-boxes people) drinking 20+ pints of water at raves, then going into shock and dying, massively outnumbered the people dying from shitty drug intoxication.

The DJs and Radio station have a responsibility not to help stupid people kill themselves.

I heard about this story too. It is sad and sick. How far do the DJs have to go to get ratings?

Good old, make that 'new', American ethics.
Somebody does something stupid, and 10 people get fired.
We can now pat ourselves on the backs for our sensitivity.

But - but - if it makes money its got to be OK - surely?

Bit OT but it never ceases to amaze me how DJ's who generally appear to be a pretty cretinous bunch, are held in such high esteem - all they do is play other people's records and witter on a bit. How hard can that be and yet they are talked about as if its akin to performing brain surgery.

Its not rocket salad is it?