Jan 22, 2007 10:03 pm US/Eastern
FCC Asked To Pull Sacramento Radio Station Off Air
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS) ―
Lawyers for the family of a Sacramento woman who died after drinking nearly two gallons of water in an on-air radio contest are demanding the Federal Communications Commission terminate the station's license.
The development comes as the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of 28-year-old Jennifer Lea Strange, and as the family's lawyers threaten to file a wrongful-death suit against the station as early as Thursday.
"Despite having a distended abdomen and complaining of significant symptoms of a headache and lightheadedness, the radio station allowed her to leave the premises without any type of assistance or concern. Ms. Strange went home, slipped into a coma and died," wrote Roger Dreyer, the family's personal injury lawyer, in a letter to Kevin J. Martin, the FCC chairman.
"We believe the conduct of the radio management and the on-air staff mandates that your agency terminate the radio station's license and discipline its ownership for their wanton disregard of the safety of the participants in this contest."
FCC spokesman Clyde Ensslin said Monday that he didn't know if the agency had received the letter and couldn't comment further.
Charles Sipkins, spokesman for station KDND's parent company, Entercom/Sacramento, declined to comment.
The Sacramento area radio station fired 10 employees after Strange, a mother of three, died following the Jan. 12 contest on the station's "Morning Rave" program. She was one of about 18 contestants who tried to win a Nintendo Wii gaming console by seeing how much water they could drink without going to the bathroom. The show's disc jockeys called the contest "Hold your Wee for a Wii."
Several hours into the program, Strange was interviewed 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 said.
"This is what it feels like when you're drowning," responded one of the DJs.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
