Blazers give radio voice Travis Demers a trial run as TV play-by-play announcer

The Trail Blazers’ search for a television voice is turning to a familiar one. Radio play-by-play announcer Travis Demers will call games on TV this season on a trial basis, according to The Oregonian.

Demers, Portland’s radio voice since 2019, will work alongside color commentator Lamar Hurd and courtside reporter Brooke Olzendam. The arrangement is not an official promotion: the team plans to keep evaluating its options, and other play-by-play announcers could handle four- or five-game stretches during the season, though Demers could also keep the job all year.

The Blazers are still sorting out their radio plans and will likely open the season simulcasting Demers’ TV call on the radio. He has filled in on the television broadcast before, including during this preseason.

The opening was created by one of the strangest broadcast episodes in recent memory. The team hired Braiden Bell as its TV play-by-play voice this month and fired him the same day after a KGW reporter uncovered racist and misogynistic social media posts Bell had made when he was 15. Bell apologized and asked the team to reconsider, offering outreach to Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and women’s sports organizations. The Blazers said they stand by the decision and have no plans to reinstate or compensate him.