"the God-given gift of voice."

Wow,

IT is true though that radio is in hard times. But his voice really stands out. I laughed b/c you don't expect people to sound like that on the side of the road.

Thank you for letting us know about that gifted person.

Free lance work has many opportunities in advertising and film, which could give him a splendid career. There's a secondary career possibility by working alongside as his manager.

He is as good as good gets good. He could do any kind of voice announcing.

The human voice, agreed, is God given. However, even God given tools can be misused. When you park a 200-mile-per-hour sports car along the side of the road and throw a tarp over it, what do you have? A ton of potential. Potential is like lightning in a bottle. It's useless. You may have harnessed the atom, but can you generate usable power with it, without killing everything within miles? A Stradivarius violin is just an expensive fiddle until it is put in the hands of a master musician.

In over 40 years of teaching, training and managing "voices" in radio and television, in my opinion, having "golden pipes" is only the starting point for this guy. He has to want to be a star; and to put in the work it takes to make money at it.

You may have thousands of dollars of tools in a very expensive tool box, but if you don't know how to take care of them or use them to capacity, some portion of the technology or gift is a total waste. I have known hundreds, if not thousands, of very gifted voiced people who are a total waste of time. A voice does not make you a communicator who knows how to manipulate content. No doubt, the world needs more folks who are effective communicators. Time will tell, if this fellow has the goods.

What Marshall Johnson Sr has said is too true, as I also have noticed. People who have conspicuous potential are often, and inexplicably, unmotivated to be what they could be.

Over the years I've developed the habit of always speaking to a person's potential and leaving out the other half of the discussion, questioning the lack of constructive incentive.

In the end, it is true, the real stars are those who have two gifts: the potential, and the mastery of the job consistently over time.

But these remarks are general, and the man in the video is a particular case. We must resist the desire to judge individuals based on general views. This man is in a very precarious position, since we understand that he could relapse into destructive behavior.

Those of us discussing the situation can be ruthless and discount such people, or we can lend a hand and offer that "second chance" we would all hope for if we needed it.

I was surprised to see him featured on the local 6 oclock news tonight.. as a matter of fact he's all over the Tv dial tonight. The following is an excerpt from USA Today..

"...He's been offered a job by the Cleveland Cavaliers. NFL Films reached out to the Columbus Dispatch newspaper, which profiled Williams, to hire him for voiceover work, says NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy.

NBC's Today Show, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live and MTV are calling for interviews with 53-year Brooklyn native. By midday Wednesday, Williams had himself an agent who was fielding an avalanche of job offers and media requests.

Sorry, Mr. Williams isn't available, his rep said in an email . He was scheduled to board a plane for New York today at 4 p.m. today, where he's booked on Today and Jimmy Kimmel...."

He was interviewed on TV a few hours ago, and he was all cleaned up. Apparently things are suddenly looking up for the man

Guess it's too late for me to get him to do liners for my Part 15....

I wish him l luck.

He has been in the business before, and not many people
get second chances like this. I think he'll do alright.

Can't get hired?

Print a sign and stand somewhere in public givings demonstrations of what you do.

A new advertising medium.

If it were not for the internet, he would probably still be standing out there with his little cardboard sign.

Yes you're right, Rich Powers, the internet made this story take off. I first saw the video from here at part15.us, and I've run into it ever since all over the place.

Over at engineering radio.us Paul Thurst blogged this line along with the video:

"Rumor has it the the Cleveland Cavaliers have offered him a good job. Hopefully things will work out for him."

It's impressive and wonderful in the middle of cold winter.

Thinking back, it was on the same day that "The Voice" first appeared, that I also encountered a homeless man with a neatly printed sign, "Help Feed My Family."

What my homeless person had in common with an announcer was a "sales pitch."

He said for only $5 he could feed his daughter for two weeks.

"His daughter" might have been a euphemism for "his bottle," so I thought of a fair way of being generous, bypassing the fact that "money converts to alcohol."

Give a banana. Nourishing and friendly.