The reason I asked is because about 25 years ago I listened to a radio station in Vancouver where the D.J. would place prank call to person drawn at random every morning............it was hilarious and since it was a daily occurence at the same time every morning it was no doubt station policy.
I think every radio station has done that at some point. As far as pranks go, this one was not mean in and of itself, it just worked. Which I'm sure was not what they were expecting.
Whether they or the station had any reasonable way of predicting such a tragic outcome from it or even if the station was behind the "prank call" gimmick of the show is really a moot point when it comes to their being fired. The publicity from it is not good, so the station cancelled the show. Cancelling the show effectively fires them.