Would you set up a contest knowing that participants could be injured or die? Would you be OK with that? Or would their signed waivers or poor judgement remove any misgivings or concerns?
For me the answer is no and that is how I would vote if I was on the jury.
A lot of contests have the possibility that people could be injured or die. For example, in San Diego they have had contests where people had to ride a roller coaster continuously. While people DO ride coasters a lot without injury, it is always a possibility that you could be hurt, especially with repeated rides. So they get a waiver.
Of course, skiing is dangerous, people die skiing, but people run ski contests. Lots of stuff can be dangerous.
We all know now that this "water poisoning" isn't a "only a few poeople fall ill to it" kind of thing, but I don't think the station or the DJ's believed it at the time.