From Partners To Strangers
Relationships have both spatial and temporal boundaries. We 'place' strangers in the outer ring of our interpersonal distance, which is 12 to 25 feet away. In our work in Universal Somatics, we call that the EXOsphere. An acquaintance finds their orbit from 4 to 12 feet away, in the emotional zone we call the ECOsphere. Our friends and relatives 'travel' in the personal space called the ONTOsphere, just 1.5 to 4 feet away from us. And our intimate partners circle in the bonding area, the PHYLOsphere, which is 0 to 1.5 feet away. The sensory experience shifts from tactile/olfactory there to visual/tactile in the ONTOsphere, to auditory/visual in the ECOsphere to simply neuroception - sort of our brain's radar system in the EXOsphere. When you witness the end of a partnership, such as Mike and Chris', all the layers of Soma Space are flooded with noise and both individuals feel a fragmented sense of themselves. Once the 'signal to noise ratio' reaches a certain threshold, one or both partners bolts the relationship. Following in the 'exit strategy' of each domain, the PHYLO's tend to fizzle at the end, the ONTO's (like Chris) tend to suddenly spike, the ECO's will crash and the EXO's (like Mike) will...er tank and just drop from view. So in this partnership, the spike had the last say. To learn more about how the domains influence breakups - click here
Strong Antagonism (polarity) gives rise to syzygy. This helps us overcome duality (4-foldness). Temporal unfolding yields phylogenic order parameters Spatial unfolding yields ecosomatic order parameters. They’re relatively weak antagonismstabilizes the system
I know that drivel makes zero sense. Take a look at this essay for a more straightforward take
Partners also travel a temporal 'distance' in a relationship. The fuse an uncommon past with a shared present and attempt to create a common future. Yet all relationships embed the self-conflicts of each individual and over time, the shared past becomes a closet with skeletons, or an attic with narrow crawl space. The common future develops frayed ends and the shared present becomes less unified. Riding out those instabilities is a function of what we call in Universal Somatics, a domain exchange. In a nutshell, both partners need to be able to shift their temporal perspective from the kinesthetic or Intended Self, where feelings can cloud their vision, to their Extended Self, where images are uncoupled from the body and the partners can view the entire history of the relationship in the six common somatic interfaces we use to lock into each other's physiological rhythms. Once you can actively shift from these two timelines - then you can isolate what timeframe you're accessing from the Extended Self.
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That said...
The reality of Chris "Mad Dog" Russo deciding to not finish his sports talk career across from his partner of 19 years on WFAN, Mike Francesa, is not the issue. Russo or Francesa could of left and the impact would of been the same as far as the audience was concerned. The fact that it was Christopher is a bit of a surprise on the surface, but the more you study their profiles, the more this scenario seems likely. In order to make this clear we need to talk about the three distinct incarnations of WFAN that could no longer align and allow MMD to remain intact. It got messy.
The WFAN of the Past - Last summer, in the wake of just losing Don Imus to the Rutger's incident, WFAN celebrated it's 20th Anniversary. It was a nostalgic weekend for the millions of listeners who were glued to their radios in the summer of 1987 when sports talk radio was born on July 1st. I had a security job in Long Beach (ironically Mike's hometown) and I was one of the listeners who related to the clips of Pete Franklin ("Fire me, Fire Me") and Jim Lampley's Hotel California show. I was the audience who can remember the early moments of Steve Levy and Ian Eagle calling into Captain Midnight and Dave Sims and Ed Coleman's 'Soul Man and Coleman" fantasy football segments. Heck I tuned in for Bill Mazer's Mickey Mantle disaster and Spencer Ross' root canal interview with the Iona basketball's athletic director. That weekend was where we saw the innocence of WFAN give way to it's corporate present.
The WFAN of the Present - In the process of celebrating it's past, many of WFAN's heartless moments were re-visted. Radio is one of the coldest mediums around. It's ironic that the all-sports format is actually older on TV, with ESPN launching in 1979, along with the growth of cable television. So here we have a 20th anniversary milestone under the cloud of Don Imus' moment of truth. Where was WFAN to defend Don? Why didn't he simply read from contract on the air when Matt Lauer had him split screen with Al Sharpton? Because the past is the past. In WFAN's present, CBS radio had to balance politics with economics. When it became clear that the early pressure from Sharpton's group was 'tracking negative', they ran and hid. And who defended him? Right, it was Mike and Chris, who realized, gulp, they could be next.
That sad truth was that the perception of MMD had slowly begun change. They were becoming a retro act on the airwaves. They were far from Bill Mazer at Mickey Mantle's but they had aged with the that old school audience and that audience still had the best seats for Yankee and Giant games. So they had a loyal and powerful audience but the station saw the sun setting on it. They didn't care about alternate media and the confluence of radio, TV and the internet because, hell, they had the ratings and the advertising dollars. Even their often tense but lucrative relationship with the YES network was on it's last legs. It was clear that they were both feeling the boat leaking. Mike got a whiff of morning drive that Spring. Dog got a whiff of afternoons alone. They both saw an uncertain future. Then they laced up for the Fall and Winter book and like the old ambitious 'boys' they were, they rode the wave of the Met collapse, the addition of Boomer and Carton (role reversal time - now they were the incumbent WFAN team, not Imus), and the improbable run the Giants had in JAN the same way they rode those 90's Knick, Ranger and Yankee runs. And it was great...until the Spring.
The WFAN of the Future - It's 6am and I'm logging into PalTalk. The 'new' 1:05pm for WFAN is when Craig Carton croans his datatatatata around 6:05am. He's the edgy one that no one knows what he'll say next now, not Dog. It's obvious how disconnected MMD is from WFAN's attempt to be at least tolerant of new technology by the fact that PalTalk is available from only 6am to 1pm and not during their show. The YES network used to have a chat room for them, but MMD totally ignored it, as they had the FAN's instant access. In the wake of the Giants celebration, Mike had a day on the air where he took calls trying to name the David Tyree catch. WFAN eventually posted a survey since so many people wanted to participate but Mike wasn't savvy or just plain wasn't interested enough to let them at least talk to each other, let alone Mike directly. It used to be that the listeners were a passive, faceless entity. They were a rating's number to be tracked quarterly. Not anymore. On the FRI farewell show, Mike hinted that he wasn't too happy about the new the new ratings would be tabulated. The game changed.
The other new reality is the relationship of WFAN and SNY. Since MMD was tied to YES, the station had a classic contractual schism there. Much like the way ESPN radio wouldn't allow their people to guest on WFAN's shows, especially MMD, SNY was emerging as bridge for Daily News reporters to have a platform that WFAN wouldn't give them. Raisman, a longtime critic of MMD, who's Tiki Barber battle with MMD was almost comical, now had a way to dig into the 5pm hour on YES, and then go back and write a column about it. The other new player in town was Sirius satellite radio, another foreign turf for loyal MMD listeners. But now SNY had created a show for their version of Dog - Scott Farrell. Another Craig Carton type. Or is Carton a Farrell type? And who gets the role of the new Mike - LOL - Chris Carlin of course. He inherits the kingdom of years of being a behind the glass type for the old MMD.
This is where we are. Mike continues to stay in his chair at WFAN and let the MSG/YES thing play out. Sooner or later the NFL Network will make nice with Time Warner and Mike's SUN NFL Now show will be simulcast like it was on MSNBC all those years ago. Mike will carry the flame for those old school fans who don't watch sports to gamble or play fantasy leagues or blog about Erin Andrews' breasts (not that there's anything wrong with that) . And Dog? It's really odd to say this, but I get the sense that somewhere around the time of WFAN's 25th anniversary in 2012, he'll find his way home to Mike and WFAN for their Bill Mazer swan song. Maybe by then the whole schism between terrestrial and satellite radio and cable and fiber optic televsion will have jumped the shark too. They'll do more internet shows then. They'll chat with the audience or have board ops chat for them. They'll play old clips for their Viagra'd fanbase. It'll be cool...
I just hope Tony Russo is around to appreciate it...
Good job out of Eddie, Victor and the subordinates...Enjoy your evening, adios, 6:20...here's Mr. Met
For my interview on Mike Silva's NY Baseball Digest, click here - I'm on the first 25 minutes
Learn how to use PROFILING to discover your own social identity, click here
