adam515, Your broker is correct, the certs are in street name in bulk form, the DTCC has no idea who or how many each shareholder holds, the TA is the only person that has that info.
You request from your broker,he in turn puts in a request to the TA to break your certs out of the bulk status, the TA notifies the clearing house, so they can reduce their holdings, they in turn notify the broker to remove the IOU'S from your account, then the TA ships out the shares to you.