Wee, Wee, Wee, All The Way ...Gone

As a MMRP (major market radio personality) I was immediately drawn to the story of the 28 year old housewife who died after taking part in a stunt orchestrated by some of my radio brethren. The stunt, was perpetrated by the "Morning Rave", which I'm sure was a high class, intellectually stimulating mix of fart jokes, tips on how to get more "booty", and numerous stories involving drunkenness and vomit. "Hold your wee for a Wii" (I get it, wee the pee and Wii the video gaming system sound the same) asked contestants to drink as much water as they could without going to the bathroom in an attempt to win the Sony game system. After being coaxed out of the contest for a pair of Justin Timberlake tickets, Jennifer Strange went home and died. The official cause of death was "water intoxication". That's tragic. When I first heard the story however, I laughed like a jackass.

Today the Sacramento Sheriff's Department began a criminal investigation into the incident. This is where I get mad. The investigation was launched after tapes of the stunt were made public. On the tapes, the "talent" can be heard laughing, making reference to people dying from drinking too much water, and guffawing that the contestants had signed releases. In hindsight, very distasteful, but is it really criminal?

I feel for the family of the woman, but she was an adult. Were the "hosts" stupid. Hell yeah. If you do even a quick search on the internet you can find all kinds of information on water intoxication. Was management at the station lax when it came to letting their "morning zoo" promote a contest? Probably. Was the woman responsible at all? She was the grown up, who worked in the medical field, that went to the station, entered the contest, signed the release and drank the water. All that for a $300 gaming system. I bet her husband wishes he had saved a couple bucks. I'm no lawyer, but in my opinion, this doesn't seem like a criminal offense. There was no intent to harm any of the contestants. The only intent on the part of the "personalities" was to get good ratings so they could get the hell out of Sacramento. The people on this show were idiots trying to make a name for themselves. Well, congratulations, people in the industry know you now, and you're probably going to have to go back to working at Linens and Things. Every one at the station lost their jobs, rightfully so. The station should probably pay the woman's family something since no one there was smart enough to Google anything before the contest, but criminal charges? I hate to keep harping on this, but the woman did this on her own. Nobody on the show held her down Gitmo style and poured the water down her gullet. She signed a release, so she knew there might be some risk. It's a tragedy, but it was an accident.

I have yet to do any stunts on my show, but after this, I'll need to re-think some of the ideas I've been kicking around. All my great ideas "wrestle a grizzly for Bears tickets, stick your tongue to a frozen pole and get front row to My Little Pony on Ice, and survive the Tazer for a new Razr will all have to be run past the Legal Department before I can announce them on the air. Wow all this writing has made me thirsty. I need some water. Later...Brian