Photo by Damon Green

President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration committee has replaced a longtime inauguration parade announcer, according to several reports. Charlie Brotman told The Washington Post and NBC Washington that the committee delivered the news via email.

“I was totally shocked,” Brotman told NBC. “I’ve got friends and family expecting me to do this and I want to do this.”

The email (which attempted to soothe the burn by calling Brotman “a Washington Institution and a National Treasure”) stated that he’ll have the title “Announcer Chairman Emeritus,” and he’d have “a prime seat” at the parade in honor his service.

Brotman got the gig more than six decades ago.

In 1956, he announced during opening day for the Washington Senators baseball team, in which President Dwight Eisenhower was throwing out the first pitch against the Yankees. Brotman recalled to Tablet Magazine in 2013 that he later got a call from the president’s office asking if he’d announce during the inauguration parade. “At the time, I thought it was kind of a fun thing,” Brotman said. “I thought it would be a one-time shot, and that would be the end of it.”

But the 89 year old has announced at every inaugural parade since President Eisenhower’s second term.

Steve Ray, an announcer who volunteered for the Trump campaign, will take Brotman’s place. “All of us think of Charlie as as much of the Washington landscape as any building,” Ray told The Post. “I’m on top of the world. From my point of view, I am not filling his shoes, I’m not taking his place, I just happen to be the guy who’s next.”

Boris Epshteyn, the committee’s director of communications, said in a statement to DCist that the group will “be proud to honor Charlie as Announcer Chairman Emeritus on January 20th,” and they’re also “thrilled for Steve Ray to be introducing a new generation of Americans to the grand traditions of the inaugural parade.”

Meanwhile, Brotman told reporters that he’s now unsure if he’ll attend the parade this year.