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Job offers pile up for homeless man with "golden voice"

Ted Williams
screen grab of YouTube video
Ted Williams

Columbus Dispatch videographer Doral Chenoweth III says he filmed Ted Williams on a whim.

"We run into these guys at the exit ramps and we pretty much ignore them," said Chenoweth, who was en route with his wife to the grocery store when he first saw Williams. "This guy was using his talent."

Ted Williams was standing on a street corner near a highway exit ramp in Columbus, Ohio holding a sign that said "I have a God-given gift of voice. I am an ex-radio announcer who has fallen on hard times. Please any help will be greatfully (sic) appreciated..."

And when you hear his voice, it's uncanny. It sounds as if you've just stepped into a commercial radio or television broadcast. It almost sounds fake. Listen for yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTysXITBCmk

The video went viral and the help Williams was asking for came in. Job offers have apparently stacked up.

WEWS NewsNet 5 in Cleveland reports that Williams has been offered several jobs, including a job doing voiceover work for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Quicken Loans (both owned by Detroit's Dan Gilbert). They've also apparently offered him a house to live in. The station reports:

Williams has not said if he will accept the Cavs job, as he is entertaining offers from all over the country. The Cavs were told that he is being flown out to New York City today, and has several interviews scheduled.

"Ritchey," the YouTube user who recorded and posted the Columbus Dispatch video, wrote this in his notes: 

My request to all. Whenever you run across a story such as this, don't assume it'll take a life of its own, on its own. It won't. It can't. There are too many other stories that drown out the one before it. You need to spend time to get that story and its word out to many. If you care, you'll do it. Keep the faith, pay forward and always lend a hand; even if you're the one who needs it.

Mark Brush was the station's Digital Media Director. He succumbed to a year-long battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, in March 2018. He was 49 years old.