A homeless man with a golden voice has had a major change in fortunes after being offered a job announcing for the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA team after being spotted on YouTube.
In one of the internet’s most touching stories yet, a video of Williams at an Ohio intersection posted on Monday has garnered four million hits, an emotional appearance on CBS’ The Early Show, a feature on The Today Show and a slew of offers of work.
Today, while the smooth-sounding man was an on-air guest on Cleveland’s WNCI 97.9, a representative from the Cavaliers rang in and offered Williams a full-time job with the Cavaliers and the mortgage on a house.
An elated Williams accepted the offer in principal but will surely consider his options after reports of interest from New York stations as well as MTV.
In the video, Williams holds a sign saying ‘I have a God given gift of voice. I’m an ex-radio announcer who has fallen on hard times. Please! Any help will be gratefully appreciated. Thank you and God bless you. Happy Holidays’.
A reporter from the Columbus Dispatch asks him to prove it. Williams does and later explains he’s an ex-radio announcer who has been through hard times with drugs and alcohol but has been two years clean and simply wants to work again.
“When I was 14 I listened to one of our local area radio announcers and I went on a field trip to meet the guy, and he looked nothing like what he sounded like,” Willaims says.
“I said to him about that and he said, “Listen, radio is defined as theatre of mind.
“He said to me: ‘I can’t be an actor; I can’t be an on-air (television) personality’. The voice became something of a development (for me)”.
However, Williams had already found out that success brings haters.
Shock Jock Howard Stern has questioned whether he’s genuine and suggested the video was simply a stunt.
