Here are the strangest radio contests that actually happened!
6 - Hold Your Wee for a Wii
How cute, radio stations are sooo punny aren’t they?! Hold your wee for a wii was a radio
contest back in 2007 that prompted contestants to chug a whole bunch of water without going
for a p*ss. This uh…..“brilliant” idea comes to you courtesy of KDND in Sacramento.
Unfortunately, because of a horrific lack of judgement on the radio hosts, it resulted
in the death of 28-year old Jennifer Strange.
The contest was during a morning show called The Morning Rave. The contest involved giving
people 8 ounce bottles of water to drink at 15 minute intervals. Once a person caved and
went to use the bathroom, they were out. The last person standing would win a Nintendo
wii. In case you didn’t know, chugging water without electrolytes is an extremely dangerous
thing to do. Without adequate electrolytes, your body becomes overhydrated, and the cells
in your body swell, and this includes your brain cells. I’m not gonna go too deep into
the science here; all you need to know is that death from drinking too much water is
possible.
Hours after competing in this badly setup contest, Jennifer Strange left work and went
home, as she had complained to her co-worker that her head hurt. The co-worker then called
Jennifer’s mom, who went to Jennifer’s house an hour later, since she was worried
about her daughter’s safety. When she arrived she found Jennifer dead in the bathroom, from
water intoxication. The really messed up part is that the on air DJ’s who egged on the
contestants to chug water were well aware of the dangers involved. The Sacramento Bee
actually got their hands on some audio from the show and released them to the public.
At one point, the DJ’s claimed they knew of similar contests where people had died
from water intoxication, but joked that they didn't care because the contestants had signed
waivers and couldn't sue. Seriously, how can people like this call themselves human beings?
Strange’s lawyer charged that even after getting phone calls, including a call in from
a nurse, the DJs didn’t pass along information about the dangers of drinking too much water
to any of the contestants. Instead, listen to this, supposedly, midway through the contest,
the amount of water given to the participants was doubled. Come ONNNN, were these hosts
dropped on their heads when they were babies?! Where’s the common sense and basic human
decency?!
Ultimately, 10 employees were fired, including the 3 idiotic hosts of the show. The radio
station was sued in a wrongful death suit. Strange’s husband and three kids were awarded
more than $16 million by Entercom Sacramento. The DJs, Steve Maney, Lukas Cox and Trish
Sweet all somehow were able to find radio work in other markets. I’m still trying
to figure out how they weren’t banned from the industry.
5 - Howard Stern Shenanigans
Howard Stern has been a pretty controversial dude ever since he broke onto the radio scene
in the early 80’s. Not coincidentally, he’s also had one of the most successful radio
programs in the world, with up to 20 million listeners on any given morning and amassing
a huge fortune worth around $600 million. Think about the 20 million listeners for the
next little bit while we detail some of his most bizarre on air contests.
For a guy who’s racked up more than $2.5 million in FCC fines, well the stations that
broadcast his show anyway, it’s not at all surprising that he’s facilitated some pretty
bizarre and at times obscene on-air promotions. This is the guy who brought us the Bathroom
Olympics and an array of Jeopardy satires such as Black Jeopardy, Homeless Jeopardy,
and Penthouse Jeopardy.
There was also the “small p*nis contest” which was a contest where some guys measured
their d*ck and whoever had the smallest won! Just…..wow. And let’s not forget the “get
my grandpa laid” contest. The winner of that weird contest was 86-year old Johnny
Oris, who actually passed away before he could collect on his “prize.”
Okay, this last contest has a bit more story to it. Oris’s grandson, Ed, took part in
Stern’s competition, which had three other sets of grandfathers and grandsons competing.
Ed and his grandfather won, which earned Grampa Oris a free pass to the Bunny Ranch in Nevada,
where prostitution is still legal. Mr. Oris made plans to have a 3s0me with a couple of
these girls, but choked to death while eating steak at a nearby restaurant. Oris, a retired
farmer from Illinois, lost his wife 11 years before winning this contest, and according
to his grandson, he was understandably ecstatic for his chance collect on the prize.
The promotion was held back in October of 2013, which quite appropriately was around
the same time Johnny Knoxville’s movie, Bad Grandpa was coming out. The really weird
part was that Ed was granted a free night in the brothel as some sort of odd condolence.
Love him or hate him, you really can’t deny Stern’s ingenuity or depravity, depending
on the contest. In some cases, even he himself knows this. Hence the name of his contest
“It’s Just Wrong.”
In this outrageous segment, people do things that by most metrics, are just wrong. Like
a team of mothers and daughters stripping nude. Well if the ratings for The Howard Stern
Show are any indication, there’s a pretty high demand for these sort of antics.
4 - Breast Summer Ever
In a contest known as “The Breast Summer Ever”, one Canadian radio station organized
a contest where listeners could win breast implants. The puns never stop, do they?
The Amp Radio Program in Calgary asked listeners to send in pictures of themselves along with
reasons why they wanted breast implants to enhance their lives. A panel of judges would
narrow down the field to 10 finalists who they felt most deserved the breast augmentation,
an operation that can get pretty expensive of course. The public would vote on who out
of the 10 finalists would be the winner. The final 10 were posted on the station's website,
by first name only. Among the hundreds of applicants were women who weren't satisfied
with their figures and breast cancer survivors.
The contest wasn’t even close. The winner was a transgendered musician with the first
name Avery, who received about 76 percent of the vote. Avery was in the process of transitioning
to a woman, and claimed she couldn’t afford the breast implants on her own.
Of course, a contest which gave away a free breast augmentation that had a transgender
person winning didn’t happen without backlash from the public. Someone vandalized the station
accusing them of being sexist. I mean…..the fact that the person who won free implants
who used to be a dude is sorta the opposite of being sexist wouldn’t you say? Station
managers acknowledged that while the contest was done in poor taste, they pointed out that
it still had the potential to help people, since some of the participants were breast
cancer survivors.
In the case of Avery, she claimed it would help her overcome the daily bigotry she was
facing. Her argument was compelling enough to propel her to a landside victory, and the
parent company decided to keep rolling with “The Breast Summer Ever” contest. Hey,
I’d say Avery won it fair and square. If 76% of those who voted wanted her to win it,
then those boobs should be hers!!
3 - 100 Grand Richer
In 2005, Norreasha Gill spent more than two hours listening to station WLTO Hot 102.5
in Lexington, Kentucky in order to win 100 Grand. That seems more or less reasonable,
right? After all, $100,000 dollars is a good chunk of cash. Well, before taxes anyways.
After listening for hours to be the 10th caller at a specific time, she was pretty stoked
when she won.
However, there’s a little misunderstanding here. Well, misunderstanding on Gill’s part.
Or maybe it’s really ambiguity? Maybe the radio host tried really hard to let on that
it wasn’t gonna be the 100 grand cash that most people would think of, and she just wasn’t
able to decipher that joke. Instead of being presented with a six figure check, she was
instead awarded a 100 Grand candy bar. You guys ever had one? if you’ve never had one,
it’s a chocolate bar with caramel and crispy rice….mmmmm….it’s actually really good,
and I don’t even like candy bars!
ANYways, obviously, Gill was absolutely furious. She decided to sue the station. Even after
the station manager tried to give her $5,000, she claimed she wanted the full $100,000.
“Nobody would listen for two hours for a candy bar” she said. Yeahhhh, she’s probably
right.
WLTO later fired DJ Slick, the apparent mastermind behind this deceptive promo, who wasn’t
even the first person to pull this devious stunt. Opie and Anthony did the same thing
in the early 90’s, though they’re better known for different reasons.
I can’t find any information on what the resolution was…..but if you any of you guys
know, be sure to let me know in the comments!
2 - Just a Mini Tattoo Thumbnail: http://i2.asntown.net/9/andreas_muller.jpg
What would you do to win a car? A brand new car that you actually liked? I mean, think
about it…..the upside to winning a new car should be pretty obvious. You have a new car
with that new car smell that you can use to cruise around. Although, if it were me, I’d
sell the new car, pay the taxes on the winnings, and then use THAT money to buy another car
if I really needed a car, but then again, that’s just me.
Anyways, what I’m really getting at is that we all have our limits on what we’d do for
a new car. And I’m gonna guess Andreas Muller does too, although it’s scary to even think
about what his limits are given what he did to win a Mini Cooper. Back in 2011 the German
native agreed to have the word “mini” tattooed onto his d*ck. Now, if you have any
tattoos, you know that depending on the area, tattoos can get REALLY painful. I personally
haven’t asked about getting that special area of mine done, but I’m just gonna go
ahead and place a bet that it’s sensitive! One thing I do know for sure though. The man
clearly wanted a Mini Cooper. Andreas now has a Mini Cooper and a great reason to pull
lil Andreas out of his pants whenever he wants for the rest of his life, so I guess that’s
another plus.
“There were a lot of crazy stunts put forward by listeners, but Andreas won by a short head,”
said one of the competition’s organizers. Ahhh, I see what you did there. The tattoo
was done live on the radio so listeners could hear Andreas suffer. According to him, it
was all worth it. He said quote, “Once I’m sitting in the car, it won’t matter anymore.
Then the pain will be gone and it’ll be alright.’’ Well, I guess if you’re okay
with the word mini tattooed on your c*ck then it’s well worth it. Although I’m guessing
the contest rules didn’t say anything about not having it lasered off…..but then again…….yeah.
I bet laser hurts more.
1 - Drink Urine for Concert Tickets
How much do people love Motley Crue? Well apparently, people loved Motley Crue enough
to subject themselves to drinking other people’s p*ss in exchange for tickets to one of their
concerts. At least that’s exactly what happened at KOMP in Las Vegas, because after all, my
town Las Vegas is pretty much the world’s capital of people doing crazy a*s sh*t.
Back in 1999 the station was giving away tickets for a Motley Crue concert and decided to really
go over the top. Greg McFarlane, the on air DJ at the station, was trying to think of
a really crazy contest he could come up with to give the tickets away.
Somehow, maybe because he was hanging with R Kelly at the station, he came up with the
idea to piss in a cup and have someone drink it in exchange for the tickets. Four people
showed up, and three of them wisely backed out at the last minute. There was one really
dedicated fan, however, who apparently had the p*ss in a cup go down like a shot of tequila,
along with whatever dignity he had left. Hopefully he got to see his favorite band live and there
wasn’t a 100 grand situation here like earlier. I’m gonna just assume Motley Crue is his
favorite band because if he likes any other bands more, I don’t even wanna think about
what he’d do for those tickets.
Anyway, McFarlane was apparently fired for this stunt. Maybe in hindsight the whole contest
was done in “poor taste.” Yes, pun intended.
Here’s what’s next!