Contests are a lot of fun for everyone in the station because they generate excitement and buzz on the street about your station. However, a station must thoroughly check out a contest beforehand for liability reasons. Many large station groups or chains employ a director of risk management. Think of this person as a safety director, someone who looks at things and dreams up what could happen if everything didn't go exactly as planned. Although the example I am going to give you is funny, after the fact, it was not funny at the time.

Each year our radio station held a big competition between the fire department and the police department to determine who were the best at a number of rescue skills. Firefighters performed police events, and the police did fire events. It was a lot of fun and the public loved it. One year we held the event at a local theme park, and it was bigger than ever. Our morning man and our afternoon drive person each picked a side in the competition, and whoever lost would have to do a "Jello jump." Our person would leap into an eight-foot tall tank of blue (station color) Jello. Our production people built this event up to the point that it sounded like the war of the worlds would take place that day, and people packed the theme park to witness the event.

The tank had a clear plastic front on it and measured four-feet long by four-feet wide by eight-feet tall. It was one big tank of Jello. We believed the losing jock would climb the ladder and jump into the Jello and stick there bobbing around. To make this much Jello, we had to use a huge quantity of crushed ice, and we mixed the Jello with an outboard motor.

At the appointed time, the losing person, our 5-feet, 8-inch morning jock, climbed the ladder and jumped into the Jello. We failed to anticipate one problem. The Jello did not support his weight, and he went straight to the bottom of the eight-foot tall tank. The fire and police saw the look on his face and knew something was terribly wrong. You cannot breathe Jello, and the weight of the Jello prevented him from moving, let alone trying to climb out of the tank.

The jock on the PA made it sound like the firefighters going into the top of the tank and the firefighters getting axes ready to take out the plastic front were part of the act. It took about a minute to get our morning man out of the tank. No one had to tell us what could have happened if the fire department was not there.

Always run your "wild and crazy" ideas by risk management or your insurance provider to make sure you are not going to make a big mistake.