Homeless 'Golden Voice' Gets Home Offer, More

Ted Williams To Appear on 'Today' Show Thursday AM

Ted talks with CBS Early Show:




The homeless man with the "golden radio voice" wanted a second chance -- and did he ever get it.

As soon as Ted Williams, a panhandler who became a worldwide hit after video of him begging on an Ohio roadside was posted to the Internet, appeared on the Dave & Jimmy Morning Show on WNCI in Columbus  this morning the offers began pouring in -- including a dream job with the Cleveland Cavaliers and a free house.

"The Cleveland Cavaliers just offered me a full-time job and a house! A house! A house!," repeated a stunned Williams, 71, on local radio station WNCI.  Click here for video of WNCI show appearance.



Ted Williams in WNCI studio WNCI photo



Ted meets the press. WNCI photo

A story at nypost.com reports a caller to the show who said she represented the Cavs offered Williams, who shot to stardom after the local newspaper the Columbus Dispatch on Monday posted video of his perfectly-pitched panhandling, a full-time job doing voiceover work for the team and parent company and a free home in Cleveland.



The Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, native trained to be a radio announcer before drugs and alcohol ruined his chances at a career, and he was reduced to begging on the side of a road in Columbus, Ohio, before the newspaper found him.

Local police would referred to Williams as "Radio man" when rousting him from his usual begging spots, Williams said.  "I've been out there about a year; I just didn't know anything like this would ever happen," an overwhelmed Williams said earlier in the show. "There's so many words. I've already been compared to [Scottish singing sensation] Susan Boyle ... I'm just so happy."

Before the Cavs made their bid, the station said a group of credit unions offered Williams a contract worth up to $10,000; a caller claiming to rep MTV expressed interest in having him guest-announce a show; and the people who said they were the voiceover actors behind plugs for "The Simpsons" and "Entertainment Tonight" said they wanted him to compete on their upcoming "America's Next Voice" -- where the prize includes a home studio.

Read more here.