When Dave Johnson is spotted by fans at a D.C. United game at Audi Field, he generally draws a crowd.
Famous for his boisterous exclamation, “It’s in the net!” when a player scores during his play-by-play for the Major League Soccer team, Johnson is almost as popular as some of the players, said Bruce Alan, former WTOP anchor who worked alongside Johnson in the studio for some 30 years.
“When fans see him in the parking lot or walking to his car … they make a huge deal,” Alan said. “He can’t get away from the crowds. They love him. Everybody loves him.”
But where others may see a crowd, Johnson, who’s also the longtime radio play-by-play announcer for the Washington Wizards, sees something else — a community. One built on the unique form of communication he’s mastered over the decades, a microphone never far from hand.
“Broadcasting is my way of connecting with so many people and sharing a journey, a positive journey,” Johnson said. “And that’s the beauty of sports. It’s a joyous journey. Yeah, we get frustrated at losses, but we fight through them together.”
Johnson, who retired from WTOP in 2022 after later serving as sports director then taking a buyout, is being inducted into the D.C. Sports Hall of Fame at a ceremony at Nationals Park on Sunday. He’s being honored alongside Nats legend Ryan Zimmerman, Maryland basketball player Vicky Bullett, “the father of Black basketball” E.B. Henderson and D.C. United defender Eddie Pope, among others.
In announcing the recognition, the D.C. Sports Hall of Fame hailed Johnson, who continues play-by-play for both the Washington Wizards and D.C. United, as “arguably the area’s most popular and versatile sports voice.”
A dream career — ruled by the alarm clock
For Johnson, his long, multitrack career — encompassing two major sports teams and D.C.’s all-news radio station — was the fulfillment of childhood dreams.
“I grew up a Washington Diplomats Fan. That was a soccer team at the time,” he recalled. “I grew up a Washington Bullets fan. And I grew up listening to WTOP with my mom.”
He joined the station in 1989 on a three-year stint, then came back in 1995 and eventually became the sports director and morning sports anchor.
For years, he worked the all-important morning drive schedule — known for its punishing hours.
Up by 3 a.m. most days, an alarm clock was a must.
“There’s when you set your alarm and when you actually get up,” he quipped. “So that was always, for 30 years, a struggle for me.”
Still, other opportunities beckoned. He started play-by-play for D.C. United with the inception of the team in 1996 and became the play-by-play radio voice for the Wizards in 1997. With the rise of social media, he became the exuberant ringmaster of the online “Radio Party,” bringing together the basketball team’s fandom.
The triple duty often meant Johnson was crisscrossing the country, going from hotel room to plane to WTOP broadcast studio in the span of a few bleary hours.
“He’d come straight to the radio station, having just napped on the plane a little bit,” Alan recalled. “He had a crazy schedule. But he’d get it done — and he was always funny. … He’d have us in stitches in the studio.”
Looking back on the strenuous schedule he kept for so many years, Johnson bluntly acknowledged: “You don’t get used to it.” But, he added, “you get energized once you get in the station. And I always fed off that energy.”
There were upsides, too, Johnson said.
His early-morning shifts allowed him to be there to pick up his son from day care in the middle of the day — often he was one of the only dads in the bunch. Plus, his crack-of-dawn schedule put him on a perfect sync with the sleep routine of a preschooler — both he and his young son were beholden to midday naps.
“So in a lot of ways, I experienced more than somebody with a 9-5 job could,” Johnson said.
Play-by-play as an art form
Broadcast contract negotiations ended Johnson’s longtime run as the TV play-by-play announcer for D.C. United in 2022, but he continues radio announcing for the team under a deal with iHeartRadio.
For Johnson, radio play-by-play is a completely different discipline than TV commentating — it’s almost an art form.
“You want the listener to imagine what’s going on and to feel every sense of what is going on, because they can’t see it. … You’re trying so hard to paint a picture. And the words are your colors,” he said.
Johnson, who grew up in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, with his finger constantly on a radio dial, said his career calling sports on the radio began as a youngster.
“All I’m doing is what I did when I was 6 years old,” he said. “I used to sportscast for my mom. I was just trying to entertain her. That’s all I was trying to do. And it turned into such a part of my life. But I didn’t go into it saying, ‘Well, I hope one day I end up in a hall of fame.’ I just enjoyed the connection I had with my mom when I was a kid.”
Johnson’s mother, Mary Lue, struggled with multiple sclerosis — a chronic condition that affects the brain and the spinal cord. In those days, there were few treatments for the disease, and she used a wheelchair when Johnson was growing up.
She died of complications from the disease in 1979 when Johnson was 15.
‘I know what this disease is about’
The disease that had brought loss to his childhood reentered his life in 2019 when Johnson was diagnosed with MS himself.
There is no cure for MS, and with the type of MS Johnson has — primary progressive MS — there is only one FDA-approved therapy.
“Well, I’m not getting better and that’s the way multiple sclerosis is,” Johnson said. “But I’m walking and talking. And I don’t say that cavalierly or just dismissively. That’s my continued goal. Every person’s MS fight is their own MS fight.”
Johnson said he’s thankful for advancements in fighting the disease that are available now that his mother didn’t have.
Without those, “Probably, I would be in a wheelchair right now,” he said. “I’m not trying to be dramatic. But I know what this disease is about.”
Ever-ready with a sly remark, Johnson said he stays positive by making peace with the here and now.
“Have I fallen? But I get back up. Do I drop things. Yeah, but I pick them up. Does that bother me? No, because — you just don’t think about it. I have a new normal. … It’s not kept me from doing anything I wanted to do. I never wanted to run a marathon. I never wanted to ski the Alps. And so I’m able to have a great life.”
In addition to the devoted fan communities of the Wizards and D.C. United, Johnson is now involved with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and he said he considers his “final fight” in life helping to once and for all put to an end the disease.
It’s another way of connecting with people, yet another community to nurture.
For Johnson, a good life is when you have connection and community.
“I can’t wait for the next game, the next event, the next chance to connect,” he said.
WTOP’s Neal Augenstein contributed to this report.
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