54
CityAndStateNY.com
TIM WILLIAMS
PRODUCER, “THE CAPITOL PRESSROOM” WCNY 05/30/1995 @TIMW518 MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS THERE ARE many cynics in the state Capitol, but Tim Williams is not one of them. The producer of WCNY’s “The Capitol Pressroom” spends his days trying to figure out who deserves airtime on some of the most pressing issues facing state government. On any given day, Williams might go from a call with Gov. Andrew Cuomo to combing through media reports to figure out whose voices are not being heard. “One of the things I like about working at ‘The Capitol Pressroom’ is just seeing all these people who are literally putting blood, sweat and tears into making their issues go forward,” he says. Despite his current comfort with the job, working in a radio studio on the third floor of the state Capitol was far from a given for the Bronx native, who got his start in radio as an undergrad at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. Williams says his family’s experience after the 9/11 terrorist attacks inspired his passion for state politics. His father, a volunteer firefighter in the Bronx, responded to the attacks that day, only to fall ill in subsequent years. A letter from then-Rep. Joseph Crowley helped secure disability benefits for the family, who later moved to the Capitol Region. Williams was only 6 years old at the time, but seeing how one person could make a difference in the lives of others left a big impression on him. “It really inspired me,” he says.
July 22, 2019
40
40