Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Another quick story before we get to emails. Have you heard, Louis, of Ted Williams, the
golden-voiced homeless man?
Louis: Oh, yeah.
David: This is funny. This happened... there's just this guy who, I guess he's a former radio
guy, and he's been homeless for some time, and there's this viral clip going around because
the guy sounds incredible. His voice is, you know, the deep-voice announcer guy.
Louis: Right. But the video was of this man who goes up to him, who was aware of him.
David: Right.
Louis: Goes up to him in a car with a video camera...
David: Well, let's... I'll just play the video.
Louis: OK.
David: This is what it is.
Doral Chenoweth III: Hey, I'm going to make you work for your dollar. Say something with
that great radio voice.
Ted Williams: When you're listening to nothing but the best of oldies, you're listening to
Magic 98.9. Thank you so much. God bless you. Thank you. And we'll be back with more right
after these words. And don't forget, tomorrow morning is your chance to win a pair of tickets
to see this man live in concert. [Laughs]
I just said well, hey, I can't be an actor, I can't be an on-air personality, but...
David: All right. So this Ted Williams, this went completely viral, right? And I don't
even care about the whole thing, how it turns out that he is an alcoholic and he had this
expose with Dr. Phil, you heard about all this stuff, and then he, I don't know what
else, what other kind of hijinks he was involved in. What... the story I care about is that
a Fox affiliate decided it would be a good idea, let's go out and talk to other homeless
people and see if we can find other homeless people that also have like an incredible voice.
And I'm just thinking when I see this, these people have no food, they have no place to
stay, and you're out there asking them to just see if they can sound like radio people?
This is a good idea? And the clip, I had it and it's not coming up now. I'm going to see
if I can find it elsewhere. Does that not seem to you like an insulting thing to do,
bugging homeless people who are just trying to get by, as a multimillion-dollar news corporation,
and trying to get them to just read into the mic?
Louis: Right, especially considering a voice like this guy's is probably one in several
million.
David: Yeah, I mean, they go up to like a random woman and just...
Louis: Like are they really expecting to find a homeless person who sounds like that?
David: And sadly, I don't have the video. Yeah, I'm just thinking to myself, buy everybody
who's on the street a sandwich instead. Spend that instead of bringing a camera down there,
microphones, and talent, and having them interview people.
Louis: Yeah, you could go to Mall of America on Black Friday and not find one person with
a voice like that.
David: That's right.
Louis: And they're going to go out and film homeless people.
David: It's amazing. And the guy's, it's just... when you see it, it's almost like the voice
doesn't even fit the guy's face. It's weird. Let's listen to it again.
Chenoweth III: ... great radio voice.
Williams: When you're listening to nothing but the best of oldies, you're listening to
Magic 98.9.
David: It's incredible.
Louis: I thought... it looks like it's fake almost.
David: It looks like it's dubbed almost, is what it is. Yeah.
Louis: Yeah. But it's not.
David: It's really the guy's voice. There's tons of videos of him. And it's amazing because
there's tons of radio guys who have good voices, but they just... they can't get any work at
all, you know? And this guy just shows up...
Louis: But this is the type of guy who could do the movie trailers, too, and make an incredible
living off that.
David: Yeah, he got some other, I mean, like... he got a bunch of other work, and then he
was on the "Today" show. Do you want to... let's just listen to a few seconds of him
on the "Today" show.
Ted Williams: ... imagine that, that I would be... I mean, just have all of this just all
of a sudden just come into, you know, this portion of my life.
Matt Lauer: You were panhandling two days ago, three days ago.
Meredith Vieira: Yeah.
Williams: Yes. Yes. Yes.
Lauer: On the streets of Columbus, Ohio. You're in New York City now, and you're on national
television.
Williams: Isn't that something? I mean, I'm still just, I'm telling you, it's... it's
unbelievable.
Vieira: It's got to be a little overwhelming.
David: And he cried in most of the interviews, and that's understandable. I don't know what
to make of it. There's just... you know, radio is just such a bad industry, and it's all...
you know, anybody can just come in off the street and just replace you.
Louis: Right.
David: In many situations, if you just work for a station, anyway, if you're not... if
you're just the voice. I kind of feel bad for the guy, but at the same time, he got
so... he got unbelievable offers.
Louis: Well, he's not panhandling anymore.
David: That's true. But he is an alcoholic, and I guess he needs to resolve that.
Transcript provided by Alex Wickersham. For transcription, translation, captions, and
subtitles, contact Alex at directtranslation@gmail.com.