Are FM radio listeners less intelligent than their AM counterparts? The accidental death of a listener in Sacramento adds to the mounting evidence to the affirmative, according to an authority.
A 28-year old Sacramento woman was presumably sent to a watery grave Friday after taking part in a water drinking contest sponsored by KDND-FM's (The End) a local Entercom station.
The coroner's office said it was consistent with "water intoxication death" which occurs when
overdrinking dilutes the sodium in the bloodstream, causing the brain to swell and push against the skull. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, weakness and, in severe cases, seizures, coma and death.
"The End" was painful for Jennifer Strange after she entered the station's "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest which promised the winner a Nintendo Wii video game system. Participants competed to see how much water they could drink without going to the bathroom.
Dr. Edgar "Choch" Manaña, who heads the Radio Listener Psychology Department at the University of California at Riverside, says this is another example of the "the vast cultural and intellectual differences" between FM and AM users.
"Statistically, AM people are way less likely to have died such a foolish, self-imposed death," said Manaña. "They're smarter, better educated, and less apt to jump though the hoops set by hypermanic FM hosts who are usually ego-crazed college dropouts with big voices and bad haircuts."
The incident has re-ignited an academic controversy that's raged for years.
Dr. Marvin Gardens, of UC Berkeley, disagrees with Manaña. "We might see more AM listener deaths if Rush Limbaugh held contests," he says. He points out that Sean Hannity's audience still believes there were WMD in Iraq; and that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9-11.
"If Rush told ditto heads to shoot themselves in the head, they'd ask 'how many times?' as the first bullet parted their hair-line," he said.
Very funny.
I wonder how many listener deaths are simply a result of Shier's broadcasts?
(will the regular cohort of finger waggers flood the blog in waves of criticism dripping contempt for your lack of compassion for this unfortunate victim of hyponatremia? The place will be awash with sympathy.)
There are plenty of pissing contests in radio, this perhaps was the first "non pissing" contest.
How long before the lawsuit?
Posted by: Liz | January 14, 2007 at 11:34 AM
Entercom is in deep doo doo over this one, methinks. Not sure if a lawsuit would be successful, since she, and the others who became ill afterwards, chose to participate.
Still, its sad because three kids dont have a mom now.
I just cant imagine doing something because a radio station tells me to....
Posted by: sparky | January 14, 2007 at 11:43 AM
My guess is there was some pre existing condition which made her more susceptible.
As for the participant consent, don't forget that McDonald's was successfully sued because their coffee was "too hot."
Posted by: Liz | January 14, 2007 at 11:58 AM
And for those concerned with ratings, she doesn't sound like a "pee 1" listener.
Posted by: Liz | January 14, 2007 at 12:02 PM
"ego-crazed college dropouts with big voices and bad haircuts"
I thought Ron and Don were AM talkers.
Posted by: Dana | January 14, 2007 at 12:20 PM
Funny, Dana and Liz. Think it is our famous American consumerism? Anything for a prize? I agree Sparky - the station may have some liability on its hands.
Pretty common knowledge among marathon runners that "death by water" is no joke.
Sad really.
Posted by: joanie | January 14, 2007 at 12:41 PM
Yeah, Ron & Don are doing FM on AM radio. They are brainless, and lowering the KIRO IQ to the detriment of those of us who listen to Dave, Ron and Dori. Thank god for Rachel Maddow and All Things Considered!
Posted by: marty | January 14, 2007 at 12:53 PM
This blog loves when it can mock the death of someone they feel superior to. Mr. Michael Hood: you are not superior to much of anyone. You might not be laughing so hard if some of these deaths happened to yourself or someone you love.
Posted by: sandra | January 14, 2007 at 01:07 PM
Michael Hood is a selfless imagineer and we're darned lucky to have him. The substantive intellectualism of his posts makes me want to stand up and cry, "here, here!
This blog is a but a mere shadow of his immense talents and he knows it... the superior discussion by Joanie, Tommy008, Fremont, and Sparky are inspired by Mr. Hood talents, and certainly worthy of this hallowed space..
Hood is a former NY Times reporter whose career has been an inspiration to me and a generation of aspiring journalists. May this blog never die!
Long live Blatherwatch!
Posted by: Mercifurious is Dead | January 14, 2007 at 02:01 PM
Sandra, second language? English, is it your?
I hate to break your bubble, babe, but death happens. I'm sure Mr. Hood has experienced the death of those close to him. Were we to shred our clothes at the passing of every human we would be more poorly dressed than Britney Spears.
Posted by: Liz | January 14, 2007 at 02:51 PM
OMG! I am so enamored by the dark side of this blog that I was ROFLMAO, (holding my wee) before I read the link...bingo! This does belong in Bla'M's humorous jugular vein.
BTW, Dead, I'm offended by your omission of several essential posters/parties to this blog...how could we proceed without the wisdom and analyses of Drs. Manana and Gardens?! And MF, himself?!
Posted by: FREMONT | January 14, 2007 at 04:17 PM
i vote for Fremont and Liz and lukobe and nate as essential bloggers too.
Posted by: sparky | January 14, 2007 at 05:38 PM
"Not only are we being run by a dictator, we're run by a madman." Karel. several minutes ago......
Posted by: fire Herr Shiers, hire Karel ! | January 14, 2007 at 07:19 PM
Dead, you left me off the list.
How could you?
And how dare you pick poor helpless OLD Joanie!
Ya know, none of this happened before George Bush the 2nd became top mutt at the house of white.
Posted by: Ryder | January 14, 2007 at 07:42 PM
I must apologize to everyone on this blog for the out of line comments I've been making, here. This time of year gets me down sometimes and I take it out on those closest to me. It's sad that the commenters on this blog are those who are the closest, but at this time of my life, that is the case. Happy New Year's and please call me on it if I get out of control again. God Bless you.
Posted by: Mercifurious is Dead | January 14, 2007 at 08:05 PM
Gee, Sparky, don't forget about Putz . . . and Ryder, what d'ya mean OLD? I'm taking all my affectionate hugs back. That was actually kind of mean.
:(
Posted by: joanie | January 14, 2007 at 08:17 PM
Is anybody else watching the Resident Idiot on Sixty Minutes? Disgusting.
Posted by: joanie | January 14, 2007 at 08:18 PM
Yes, but the sound is turned off
Posted by: sparky | January 14, 2007 at 08:24 PM
Well, he said that Iraq owes us a thank you and should be grateful to us.
Since a large percentage of the population have left the country and the rest are digging their way out of blood, gore and destruction, I doubt they agree whole heartedly.
Posted by: joanie | January 14, 2007 at 08:35 PM
his "bumpkin at the country fair", "Texas" accent is back fo 60 Minutes. I heard tell that during his big tv speech, "Gomer Bush" stated slipping back to "Grant Bush" and back again
Posted by: fire Herr Shiers, hire Karel ! | January 14, 2007 at 09:19 PM
SOME BLACK GUY is telling Goldy that "you whites" are racist by nature but his black race is not. What a joke. Sorry, I agree with Lary Elder, black talkradio guy, who states in his book "10 Things You Can't Say in America" that blacks are more racist than whites, in present day America. Also I didn't like the way Goldy tried to make a joke out of a white gentile woman's experience as a child of hateful racism from her Jewish friend's mother. Get real, Goldstein. The truth hurts, but let's not hide behind pc.
Posted by: Tommy008 | January 14, 2007 at 09:37 PM
I thought that our President looked compassionate today on 60 min. Too bad some can't look past the hate that the DEAN machine has infected thier minds with.
Posted by: Steven | January 14, 2007 at 09:44 PM
Oops, that is except our own Peasant Sparky cause she "just cant imagine doing something because" someone told her too......
Posted by: Steven | January 14, 2007 at 09:46 PM
I found it intersting that Goldy tried to host a program on racism using the old liberal PC paradigm (evil racist WASP whitey vs. heroic people of color) and he got an account from a white man of how he despises young black men after experiencing assaults and racial taunting at their hands, and a white woman traumatized in her childhood by the hateful racist mother of her Jewish fiend. The old paradigm is bogus. The vast majority of racial hate crime ASSAULTS (i read the statistics- it's somehting like 90-95 percent, are black against white assaults, not the other way around. Lets get real and talk about present day America, not the radio commercia America they trot out in Seattle every MLK day, featuring the black man at the lunch counter in the sixties having the back of his neck covered in spittle and sugar.
Posted by: Tommy008 | January 14, 2007 at 10:13 PM
Okay Joannie, I confess.
It is I that is over 60.
Though everytime I tried to call myself OLD, my mother would laugh.
Posted by: Ryder | January 14, 2007 at 10:14 PM
Jeez, Ryd, you don't look a day over 59...!
Posted by: Fremont | January 14, 2007 at 10:25 PM
Hey, Ryder, I love older men . . . don't ya know?
Umm, Ryder, your not Norman Bates are you?
Posted by: joanie | January 14, 2007 at 10:28 PM
this just in- Styble dreams of proposing marriage to Condoleeza Rice! bwaahahahahahahaahh
Posted by: Tommy008 | January 14, 2007 at 10:42 PM
She's already in love with George- did you catch the time that she slipped and called W "my husband" and then quickly corrected it to "the President"? Taliaferro claim's she's W's girlfiend.
Posted by: Tommy008 | January 14, 2007 at 10:46 PM
Tommie, have you read Zinn's A Peoples' History. . . ?
This country messed up the racial bed and it will take time to make it again.
I don't actually disagree with you but I think it is so complex I'm not sure how we fix it.
I once watched Aaron McGruder (Black cartoonist and young) talk to high school students who filled their school auditorium. He wasted no words. He told them if they were waiting for the white man to help them, it wasn't going to happen. That white people are out of work themselves. (He put it more creatively than I . . . )
His message was to get off their colletive booties, get an education and then go make something of themselves. He said it kindly but he said firmly. I was impressed by that.
African-Americans have been through the wringer in America. After generations of splitting up families, expecting them to be subservient in every way, and denying them the opportunity to an education, we all think the attitudes we internalized in their culture should be reversed in a few decades.
Remember, we redlined in this city right up into the eighties. I watched an awfully good program on channel 21 called The History of Segregation in Seattle" Please take time to watch it. You'll hear some facts I bet you don't know and some really wonderful personal stories.
Blacks have been fighting for equality forever. Look how many whites aren't making the grade. Look how many people are sinking into poverty of all races in this country. It is getting harder and harder. Blacks do not have the cushion to buffer them against so much volatility.
Yes, we've created an infestation and I don't know how to clean it up. But it is a mess we made. (Just like Iraq - god, I pity anybody that gets involved with America!) We still owe them. We just have to find a more productive and consistent way to allow real and more permanent advancement. Opening the doors again (remember the sixties) to education would be a renewed start.
When people bring up Asians' success, it is a red herring. We never did to Asians what we did to generations and generations of blacks.
Having said all that, I, too, hate the pc dance. We all need to be honest and hold people responsible for their individual deeds.
Tommie, I heard on a call-in show someone call her "kindasleazy" rice. I thought that was funny.
Posted by: joanie | January 14, 2007 at 10:50 PM
So, Ryder, does that mean you're sixty-one?
Posted by: joanie | January 14, 2007 at 10:54 PM
Bryan is being over bearing tonight, even I got to admit. I wish he would just say, "I don't know anything about that- tell me something." Just once.
Posted by: Mercifurious is Dead | January 14, 2007 at 11:45 PM
Happy Martin Luther King day...
Posted by: sparky | January 15, 2007 at 07:13 AM
Some interesting comments on the contest here
http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,60452.0.html
at the Sacramento radio board.
(sorry, I don't know how to properly post links)
Posted by: Liz | January 15, 2007 at 07:20 AM
I tried to call Styblehead last night to ask him WHY he thought C.Rice would want to marry or even talk to him, but alas! He wouldn't shut up long enough to take my call...
Joans, will you post the Segregation in Seattle link again, please? (61 sucks, in case you hadn't noticed...)
Posted by: FREMONT | January 15, 2007 at 11:10 AM
"or even talk to him"- bwahahahaahahahahahahahahah good one, Fremont!
Posted by: Tommy008 | January 15, 2007 at 11:17 AM
thanks sparky!
Posted by: lukobe | January 15, 2007 at 12:28 PM
Levity on the Dark Side...
Posted by: FREMONT | January 15, 2007 at 04:38 PM
Fremont, here's the link to the Seattle Channel page that links to the video that wouldn't come up that you asked for in your post that I'm providing . . .
Name that nursery rhyme?
Posted by: joanie | January 16, 2007 at 12:04 AM
Fremont, once you get the page, enter "Gregory" in the keyword search field. It will then come up.
Posted by: joanie | January 16, 2007 at 12:05 AM
Fremont, great video! Thanks.
Posted by: joanie | January 16, 2007 at 12:12 AM
Somebody posted she must of had a precondition that made her more susceptable. Like what being Human you idiot. People never learn this isn't the first time this has happened in the late 70,s early 80,s a father in a rage over his two kids not finishing their dinner made his two kids drink glass after glass of water. It killed them both. As a society we are bound to repeat our foolishness. I hope they go to jail for a long time they are criminally negligent in their actions. The precondition is the human body wasn't designed to consume that amount of water. Another problem is that by the time you start feeling really bad it's too late. Yea you can call it Darwinism but radio shows hold a responsability to their public to research the risks involved with stunts like this. The contestants have a pre-concieved notion that they know what they are doing.
Posted by: Colby C | January 17, 2007 at 10:47 AM