God Help Us Should Soterios Johnson Ever Decide To Institute “Whip It Out Wednesdays”

Local NPR affiliate WNYC really is a lot more popular than you thought, what with its frighteningly devoted fan base and personality branding even Martha Stewart would admire:

A steady, soulful tenor of a voice — combined with a first name that is as mellifluous as it is unusual — has won public radio host Soterios Johnson a legion of devoted fans, some of whom have gone so far as to write songs in his honor and name pets after him.

The WNYC station staff regularly fields requests for autographed photos of the baby-face 39-year-old newsman. Beat reporters say that, while out on assignment, they are frequently bombarded with questions about Mr. Johnson.

“It’s like he’s a rock star,” a city government reporter at WNYC, Beth Fertig, said, recalling how guests responded to Mr. Johnson at a recent cocktail party for station donors. “We walked in together, and it was all about Soterios. I joked, ‘What am I — chopped liver?'”

Mr. Johnson said he’s flattered, if puzzled, by the fervor of his fan base. He attributes it to the “intimate medium” of radio, and to listeners’ fascination with his distinctive moniker, which means “savior” in Greek. (His Cyprus-born paternal grandfather changed his last name to Johnson upon becoming an American citizen.)

The ultimate fan tribute will come later this month, when a Brooklyn-based heavy metal band called Satirius Johnson releases its first album full of what guitarist Alistair Wallace calls “hard, noisy music.”

Satirius Johnson’s three members, all avid listeners of WNYC, see more than a little irony in the band’s name, Mr. Wallace said. “I imagine Soterios Johnson is quiet, unassuming, and maybe a little bit bookish,” he said. “I don’t know if he would necessarily be into a band that plays eight-minute songs with lots of feedback, but you never know.”

The band places Mr. Johnson — alongside Sam Champion of ABC’s ” Good Morning America” and Gina Kolata of the New York Times — in a tiny cadre of distinctively named New York journalists who have inspired rock band names.

In addition to the jolting sounds of Satirius Johnson, Mr. Johnson, known to friends as SoJo, has also launched a more lyrical brand of music. A popular Brooklyn folk-rock singer and songwriter, Jonathan Coulton, several years ago, penned “Dance, Soterios Johnson, Dance.” The song imagines the radio host as a nocturnal party animal, making the rounds at New York City nightclubs. Lyrics include: “Go, Soterios Johnson, go/All the club kids are watching your glowstick glow/With the light of a truth you can’t hide/That the news is the news, but the dance goes on forever.”

. . .

During his five-year tenure as the WNYC morning host, Soterios Johnson has heard of more than one listener who has named a pet after him. In an interview with The New York Sun, he recalled hearing his name called during an East Village house party; turning around, he realized the hostess was beckoning her cat.

Sadly, there are too many examples to cite.