“My life has turned around in a matter of minutes,” said Ted Williams. Williams, 53, is a former disc jockey who found himself in the media spotlight on Wednesday after he was discovered on a street corner by a reporter from The Columbus Dispatch. Williams had fallen on hard times in recent years but was holding a sign proclaiming a God-given gift of voice.
The father of nine children lost his job when he became addicted to drugs and alcohol in the 1990’s. He eventually found himself living on the streets and unable to find work. “The alcohol and everything was getting a little bad for me and I was showing-up late and just taking my job for granted,” said Williams.
Ted’s voice was noticed when the newspaper reporter recorded him talking at a downtown intersection. It was posted on YouTube and drew the attention from millions of people from all over the country. Wednesday, he was a guest host on a local radio station where listeners called and emailed from as far away as Australia and England.
“I’m calling to offer to fly you out here to LA,” announced one caller who works at MTV in California. The Cleveland Cavaliers even phoned with an opportunity that may be too good to resist. “That lady offered me a full-time job with the Cavs and then something about the mortgage of a home? I’m going with that! Out of all the offers that I’ve had and I’ve had quite a few, I’ll be working in Cleveland, Ohio,” said Williams.
If he takes the job with the Cleveland team, it will be a homecoming of sorts for the native New Yorker who worked in Cleveland once before. “I was the morning personality. Every weekday morning it was the ‘Ted Williams Show’ on 1490 WJMO Cleveland Heights!”
“This is marvelous, I couldn’t be happier for him, I really truly couldn’t be because he deserves it,” said Earl Bailey, a former broadcasting teacher who once worked with Williams.
“My God,” said Williams, “it’s just phenomenal and it’s getting more and more overwhelming as the minutes go by.”
Williams has received many other job offers as well, including one from an executive at MTV.
et cetera* 
#1 by Yojimbo on January 6, 2011 - 10:43 AM
Susan Boyle, yeah, that’s he name. Taken from obscurity and given a completely new life. They both deserve it.
#2 by elcampeador on January 6, 2011 - 6:25 AM
Yeah her. Can’t think of her last name off hand and I haven’t had my second cuppa’ java, yet…lol.
OK, after a swallow or of strong coffee..Her last name is Boyle
#3 by Yojimbo on January 5, 2011 - 11:51 PM
I think it was Patton who said, “I don’t care how far a man falls just how high he bounces.”
This is somewhat analagous to that woman singer in England-Susan Clark?
#4 by eternalu on January 5, 2011 - 8:14 PM
TSA stopped Ted Williams from getting on his flight from Columbus to NYC. No appearance on “The Today Show” on Thursday morning. No visit to 92 year-old Mom in Brooklyn. See, he didn’t have ‘proper ID’, said the TSA. So Ted spent today at the Columbus Courthouse, trying to figure out how to get a copy of his birth certificate. Obviously he did have some form of ID, but the TSA wasn’t satisfied with it. OK – What are we going to do about this out-of-control phony security dance? These blockheads, however, are typical of our society. Follow the little rule book, and throw common sense out the window. Wrong. No little rule book takes away YOUR OBLIGATION TO THINK FOR YOURSELF. There are times you have to make an exception. That’s “the exception that proves the rule”. It’s like the traffic cop giving the mother of the little girl in a coma in Las Vegas a ‘jaywalking ticket’ – gave it to her right in the hospital. Or the policeman giving a ticket to the Dad who raced to the hospital while his wife’s water broke in the car on the way to the hospital in New Hampshire. RETRAIN EVERYBODY OR FIRE THEM.