"Heartbroken" inaugural parade announcer gets new gig
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The torch will be passed on Friday -- and -- so will the microphone.
It was 1957, right before the second inauguration of President Eisenhower, when Washington broadcaster Charlie Brotman got a call. He was going to be the president’s announcer.
Announcing inaugural parades has helped turned this “nobody,” as he put it, into a Washington institution.
He has been announcing at inaugural parades for 60 years -- 15 parades, 11 presidents -- and he has the programs to prove it from Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, to Bill Clinton.
But this year he was told his services will not be needed, and he was “heartbroken.”
“I was really disappointed,” said Brotman.
He told local Washington D.C. news station WJLA he was “destroyed” by the decision.
“I’ve been doing this for 60 years,” he said.
Steve Ray will be the new announcer.
Some people said Brotman has earned the right to decide for himself when to stop doing it.
“I would say he does have that right,” said Ray. “But in this case, the apolitical non-partisan Presidential Inauguration Committee also has the right to choose how they put on the event.”
Critics of the decision note that Ray was a Donald Trump campaign volunteer.
Even so, Brotman doesn’t blame him.
“Not a bit! If I were he I’d be ecstatic too,” he said.
In fact, Brotman said, this story has a happy ending -- he’ll be covering Friday’s parade for a local TV station -- reaching a much larger audience, and getting paid to do it.
“I’m better than okay,” said Brotman. “I am a shade above spectacular now.”
Brotman is now 89 years old.
“The world has opened its arms to embrace me,” he said.
Brotman predicts that his new broadcasting career is just getting started.