Charlie Brotman, Public Relations Expert and Announcer of Presidents

Published: Jan. 14, 2017, 11 a.m.

Charlie Brotman on Sugar Ray Leonard and success negotiating his first professional fight:\n\n"First professional fight, the youngster normally gets $400. That's just tradition and normal. We were able to negotiate with Baltimore for $40,000, considerably higher. We worked with him the rest of his 15 year career."\n\nCharlie Brotman, Public Relations Expert and Announcer of Presidents\n\nA Ockershausen:\tThis is a special treat for Our Town for our million of listeners to have the most famous announcer in the history of the President of the United States, Charles Brotman, a native Washingtonian, grew up here, went to Tech High School, and fortunately moved to West Virginia at one time.\nCharlie Brotman:\tAt one time.\nGetting Started in Broadcasting\nA Ockershausen:\tThat's where he got started in broadcasting, as I recall.\nCharlie Brotman:\tCorrect. I went to the National Academy of Broadcasting.\nA Ockershausen:\tAnd graduated.\nCharlie Brotman:\tAnd graduated. It doesn't exist anymore, but it was on 16th Street.\nA Ockershausen:\tKnow it quite well, 16th and R Street. No, no. Higher there. Park Road.\nCharlie Brotman:\tYeah, in that area.\nA Ockershausen:\tCharlie, did you get your first radio job in West Virginia?\nCharlie Brotman:\tRonceverte, West Virginia.\nA Ockershausen:\tWow.\nCharlie Brotman:\tWhen I graduated, they said they'll get me a job. At first, they said it was in Owosso, Michigan in the wintertime. I told the people who were going to move me to Michigan, I said basically, "I'm busy right now."\nA Ockershausen:\tCall me.\nCharlie Brotman:\tFinally, when all my friends went back to school in the summertime, that was fall, and I had nothing to do, I said, "I better see what's available." What was available was Ronceverte, West Virginia. That was near the Hotel Grand ... What was the name of that hotel?\nA Ockershausen:\tBedford Springs?\nCharlie Brotman:\tNo.\nA Ockershausen:\tSomething like that in West Virginia?\nCharlie Brotman:\tNo.\nA Ockershausen:\tWest Virginia? Wheeling? Anyway.\nCharlie Brotman:\tThat famous hotel.\nA Ockershausen:\tGreenbrier?\nCharlie Brotman:\tGreenbrier. That's it.\nA Ockershausen:\tWow. That's a resort. That's fabulous.\nCharlie Brotman:\tYeah, so I would go-\nA Ockershausen:\tDid you live at the Greenbrier?\nCharlie Brotman:\tI used the Greenbrier, played golf there, swam there like I was a guest.\nA Ockershausen:\tThat's the best.\nCharlie Brotman:\tI interviewed, goodness gracious, the Prince of Wales. Is that possible?\nA Ockershausen:\tYeah, he could have been visiting there. Absolutely.\nCharlie Brotman:\tYeah. He was visiting the Greenbrier, and I had a little microphone and tape recorder that I put right behind a plant. I was interviewing the Prince of Wales. He said that he'd just gotten off a golf course. He says, "Don't tell anybody, but I gave myself some \u201cgimmes\u201d I would never have made.\nA Ockershausen:\tThat sounds like Bill Clinton. The Prince of Wales was King of England for a while.\nCharlie Brotman:\tThat's it.\nA Ockershausen:\tHe abdicated. He married a woman from the state of Virginia. \nCharlie Brotman:\tYes.\nA Ockershausen:\tWallis Simpson.\nCharlie Brotman:\tCorrect.\nA Ockershausen:\tWe all know that, Charlies. We learn a lot.\nCharlie Brotman:\tShe was a really lovely lady.\nA Ockershausen:\tI'll bet, being at the Greenbrier. That started you, and you've interviewed celebrities your whole life now, whether it was in live radio or over a PA system. Then you came to Washington and said, "I'm going to be in the PR business."\nCharlie Brotman:\tCorrect.\nA Ockershausen:\tHow'd that happen?\nCharlie Brotman:\tYeah, basically everything has a beginning and end. I hope the end isn't soon, but in any event, when I got into broadcasting, I decided that I wanted really to get into sports. That was my thing. I wanted to be a sports announcer.\nA Ockershausen:\tAh-ha, we share that.\nWashington Senators Announcer\nCharlie Brotman:\tYeah. Finally, when I went to Orlando,