Portland Trail Blazers radio play-by-play announcer Travis Demers turned down a revised contract from new owner Tom Dundon that would have slashed his pay by more than 60 percent, stripped his benefits, eliminated travel coverage, and removed his analyst partner — essentially asking a man to call an entire NBA season alone, from home, for a third of what he’d been making.
The details surfaced in Boston Globe NBA columnist Gary Washburn’s Sunday Basketball Notes column and were corroborated across multiple outlets as the scope of Dundon’s broadcast overhaul came into focus. Demers, who spent seven seasons on Blazers radio, did not have his contract renewed at the end of June, according to The Athletic.
He wasn’t alone. Kevin Calabro, the longtime television play-by-play voice who spent nine seasons in Portland, is also departing. KGW reported Calabro’s exit stemmed from what was described as a “subprime” contract dispute. Yahoo Sports and Front Office Sports confirmed both Calabro and Demers would not return for the 2025-26 season after their contracts expired.
The broadcast cuts are part of a broader dismantling under Dundon, who purchased the franchise and has moved aggressively to slash costs. Forbes reported that other broadcasters faced deep pay cuts or non-renewed contracts. Courtside News noted the franchise laid off roughly 70 front-office staff members in May before turning to the broadcast operation. The Athletic’s Jason Quick reported that the cuts to the radio broadcast, studio show, and in-house media mirror the approach Dundon took after buying the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes — a playbook that prioritizes the bottom line over everything else on the depth chart.
You don’t gut a broadcast crew like this unless you’re looking at a spreadsheet and nothing else. The film doesn’t lie: Demers called Blazers basketball on the radio for seven years, and the offer he got back was a skeleton-crew special — no partner, no road trips, no health coverage, and a paycheck cut by more than half. That’s not a renegotiation. That’s a pink slip dressed up in contract language.
The New York Post and Sporting News both characterized the moves as the latest wave in a series of cost-cutting decisions that have reshaped Portland’s broadcast operation. Multiple longtime voices will no longer be on the air, leaving the franchise in need of at least one new play-by-play announcer on both the television and radio sides heading into next season.
Neither Demers nor Calabro has publicly detailed the terms of their respective offers. Washburn’s column provided the first specific figures on Demers’s revised deal. The Blazers have not issued a formal statement addressing the broadcast changes.
Dundon’s tenure in Portland now includes mass front-office layoffs, the departure of two established play-by-play voices, and a reshaped media operation — all within months of taking control. Whatever the financial logic, the product fans hear on the radio and see on television next season will be built from scratch, by whoever is willing to take the deal.
Sources
- Boston Globe — Gary Washburn, Sunday Basketball Notes
- Forbes — Maury Brown, “Under Tom Dundon, Portland Trail Blazers Make Dramatic Cuts To Broadcast Team”
- The Athletic — “Trail Blazers part ways with key local broadcasters in another cost-cutting move”
- KGW — “Blazers TV play-by-play voice Kevin Calabro leaving team”
- Yahoo Sports — “Trail Blazers Slash Broadcast Team As Dundon Keeps Cutting Costs”
- New York Post — “Trail Blazers dump several broadcasters under Tom Dundon”
- Sporting News — “Tom Dundon’s cheap cost-cutting strikes again as Blazers make massive changes”