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Name: Entercom Communications
Age: 41
Occupation: radio giant
Last Seen: Bala Cynwyd, PA
Bee-otched For: losing some Wii-lly big money
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Hey, Entercom, got some money lying around? After all, urine trouble.
Last week, a judge ordered the broadcast giant to pay
the family of Jennifer Strange $16.5 million for her accidental death
in 2007 as she participated in their CHR KDND/107.9 The End "Hold Your
Wee For a Wii" contest. In the contest, several people drank gallons
upon gallons of water and the person who waited the longest without
urinating won a
then-$300 Nintendo Wii, which was in high demand at the time.
The KDND Morning Rave, hosted by Lukas Cox, Steve
Maney and Patricia Sweet started the contest at 6:15 a.m. on January
12, 2007. The 20 people who participated in the event were handed 8 oz.
bottles of water to drink every 15 minutes until they were handed
another bottle. Over time, they were handed larger quantities of water
and some then complained that they were feeling pain from holding in
their urine.
During the contest, people called in and warned the
DJs that somebody could die from water intoxication, including a nurse.
They were also warned about the death of Matthew Carrington, a
21-year-old California State University student who died in 2005 also
from water intoxication as part of a hazing ritual. The State of
California passed "Matt's Law" that prosecutes
those who participate in hazing rituals that eventually kill people.
When the jocks were told about the dangers, they told their audience
that the contestants all signed a release prohibiting them from suing
the station. However, it was discovered that the waivers only mentioned
publicity issues and not health and safety concerns.
During the contest, the jocks noticed that one of the
contestants, 28-year-old mother-of-three Jennifer Strange started to
look pregnant. When the contest ended, Strange called her co-worker,
stating that she was going home because she had an intense headache.
The co-worker called Strange's mother, who went to her house to find
her dead.
When news of Jennifer's death broke out, KDND's
General Manager went into defense mode, telling listeners that the
"Morning Rave" show would be off the air indefinitely. A few days
later, KDND management fired 10 people, including the entire staff of
"The Morning Rave". A few days later, Strange's family announced that
they were going ahead and suing KDND and parent company Entercom. Just
this past week, the jury awarded the Strange family $16,577,118 and
proclaimed that Entercom's Sacramento division was at fault for her
murder. Meanwhile, the FCC is doing their own investigation into if
KDND should be fined or have their license revoked for the incident.
You know, these jerks were probably doing this
because they understand that KDND's the #1 FM station in Sacramento and
they think they can do whatever they want. Truth of the matter is
simple: drinking gallons of water without urinating can kill a person
and these assholes shrugged it off. I'm glad Entercom fired them; it's
too bad that they hired them in the first place or else they'd still
have $16 million in their coffers.
Terrestrial radio: still making morons after all these years.
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