Woman dies from water intoxication during radio contest

We had a high profile case here in Texas where a young frat pledge died from the same thing. His brothers were put on trial for manslaughter,...I don't recall the outcome. It was also hazing which is illegal here as well.
 
For that reason I am familiar with H2O intox....and if I were having a contest of ANY KIND I'd be checking, and RECHECKING with any reliable sources to make sure no one could be injured or die from it. No brainer there....people can die from withholding urine if their bladder ruptures, or having toxins put into the bloostream via old retained urine so...duh DJ's it was a dangerous contest.

DH runs a radio station.  He would have NEVER allowed something like this on his air.  And yep, that station has one heck of a lot of liability, plus they may stand to loose their FCC license.  Anyone who is in management in that station, along with the promotions person who likely came up with the idea, along with the talent, the AM show producer, ANYone who could have pulled the plug on this and did not is liable, civilly AND criminally.  And I hope they throw the book at each and every one of them.
 
The absolute worst that DH ever allowed and participated in was a "drunk driving test" done in conjunction with the police.  He and another guy did an on-air drinking thing where they would drink (someone else was running the board) and then blow in the breathalizer and report where they were in regards to how much they had drunk.  This was right around New Years so there was a purpose to this, and the station hired a limo to drive them both home.
 
THIS kind of stuff that the station in Sacramento did, well, there is just no excuse for it.

ORIGINAL: glenmar
The absolute worst that DH ever allowed and participated in was a "drunk driving test" done in conjunction with the police.  He and another guy did an on-air drinking thing where they would drink (someone else was running the board) and then blow in the breathalizer and report where they were in regards to how much they had drunk.  This was right around New Years so there was a purpose to this, and the station hired a limo to drive them both home.

THIS kind of stuff that the station in Sacramento did, well, there is just no excuse for it.

Sounds like the Johnny Fever thing on "WKRP in Cincinnattti". I LOVED that show! DH and I were discussing how much the radio station management may or may not have know about this in advance. Do the dj's have to run all contests by mgt, or are they allowed some leeway, for instance if  the prize is under a certain dollar amount? Was just wondering how this stupid a stunt could've made it past a legal dept.'s approval.

Most radio stations don't honestly HAVE a legal department.  Some of the big conglomerates have a corporate legal dept....like Cumulus or Clear Channel...the big guys, most of the smaller groups just have someone on retainer.  The dj's don't just decide to do something and do it.  That's gotta be cleared through the PD or Operations Manager.  For example, when Todd has stuff to give away, he determines the when, the where, the how and quite often provides his staff with sample scripts that they can then personalize to suit their own styles.  A promotion of this size....bringing people INTO the building, despite the fact that the prize wasn't all that huge in the overall scheme of things....it's really the BRINGING people in, putting them on-air and making a MAJOR event of it, well, THAT sort of thing requires a TON of coordinating and a lot of authorizations.  In the typical scheme of things the jocks get the ok from the PD who gets the ok from the OM (if there is any question), who gets the ok from the GM who should be getting the ok from the legal folks or at the very least from the owners who in turn run it by the legal eagles.
 
When Todd's stations have done gas for 94.7 cents,(for example...they try to work in the stations dial position)  they work things out with the client gas station and then alert the police department and even going OUTSIDE the station requires a great deal of coordination.  Same is true of the "hands on" deal where the last one standing with their hands on a new vehicle wins it....
 
Point being....there is plenty of responsibility to go around in this situation and everyone of those folks should be fired and prosecuted.

Ah, thanks for the education Glenda. All I know from radio is WKRP. DH was a dj on his college radio station, which was like four guys in a basement somewhere!

Anytime!  I've lived with radio for many years, and worked in it in sales for even more, and I can absolutely say this wouldn't have happened on one of Todd's stations.  Think I'll check out the online trades and see what the radio pro's have to say about this cluster....well, you know what!

Anyone who has worked in any kind of medicine knows that water can kill.  When an animal is hooked up to an IV we would have to watch how much fluid that animal would get because too much would drown it.  30ml per pound per day and for a really sick animal it was 40ml/pound  any more could kill the poor thing.  Don't know if it's the same mesurments for humans but water is deadly.
 
When I first heard this story I couldn't belive why they even did it in the first place.  But more so why in the heck did anyone participate in the event?

I did NOT know until a few years ago that a person could actually drink TOO much water.  We hear all the time that we all need to be drinking more pure water and they don't say, but don't overdo.  I had a UTI and I snagged a first morning urine for the doc.  He was astounded that it had just the slightest tinge and was almost clear.  Remember, this was a first morning pee.  He was floored when I told him that I drink about 3 gallons of water each day and did all the blood work to check electrolyte levels because he felt that I drink too much.  Everything was fine and has stayed fine, but I've cut back to betweeen 2 and 2.5 gallons per day.  BUT, that is over the course of an entire day.  I can't imagine sitting and drinking that much in a 2 hour period...and I'm thinking that had to be the max for the contest.....even that length of time would be boring to listeners
 
So, I think this serves as a good warning to folks who think they are doing good because they drink their 8 8 oz glasses per day, or more.  John Q Public doesn't always KNOW, and often we think that if X is good for us, more will be even better.
 
As to the why?  Well, heck, I had the radio on yesterday morning and the syndicated morning folks (Bob and Sherri, NOT Bob and Tom) had a STOOPID show....noises folks can make with body parts???  Can we say HIGH SCHOOL??  Why would folks call a radio show that airs across the country and make dumb noises with their underarms?  It's that 15 minutes of fame thing PLUS the potential to win something......

I think it was the radio stations fault mostly because two people called in and also the women called in and said she was feeling bad and they laughed and told her "ya thats what drowning feels like" how stupid, they should have told her to go to the hospital immedietly. Living about half hour away from Sacramento, I thought this news was just in sacramento...is it a nationwide story now??? I don't listen to cnn and other stations much so I just thought only people from sacramento area knew about this.
Aslo I can't believe she worked at RAS, my mom used to work there, she might have even known her.
I feel horrible for her family, and she died alone also []

They are liable.  I'm sure they never truly thought at the outset that they were testing the boundaries of how much was too much, but ignoring and mocking her obvious discomfort and illness crossed way, way over the line.  The civil suit is profoundly justifiable.
 
A friend I graduated from hs with died as the result of a stupid radio joke/hoax a few years ago leaving 3 young children without their mother. They faked Brittney Spears being at their studios or some other location to deliberately cause a crowd where there was no provision for crowd control - she brought her young daughter there and ended up falling in the jostling crowd - could have been pushed, though not with deliberation and struck her head on a curb.  She never woke up. 

Yes this news is national.  I'm never awake for the TV news, but you can't log onto a computer without it popping up everywhere.  It is all over the radio trades as well.

Honestly I never knew you could die from this.  And quite possibly if I was the DJ and the woman had complained about not feeling well, I may have just thought she really had to pee.  BUT if someone had called in and told me what could happen, I would have escorted the lady to the ladies room and then to the hospital along with any other contestants.