COLUMBUS, Ohio — The once-homeless man whose silky voice turned him into an Internet sensation five years ago is back on the air — at the same Ohio radio station where he started a broadcasting career derailed by drug and alcohol addiction.
Ted Williams recently returned to the airwaves with a weekday program on WKVO-AM, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Williams, 58, got his start at the station in the 1980s.
The new show is Williams’ first steady employment since 1993 and comes five years after The Dispatch featured the former panhandler’s smooth radio voice in an online video.
The video brought Williams instant fame but meant his personal struggles played out in public, including Dr. Phil appearances and family altercations that made the tabloids.
When The Dispatch caught up with Williams in October 2014, he was living in an apartment with no furniture, didn’t have a car and couldn’t explain what happened to a $395,000 advance for his 2012 memoir.
Williams said he’s focusing on moving forward while living with his daughter and his longtime girlfriend, who has also battled drug addiction.
Williams said he wants to be an example for others who are trying to turn their lives around.
“I want them to know that I’ve been through struggles — and they have, too,” he said. “I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. That ‘one day at a time’ really means one second at a time.”
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