Home > Television > Disney Channel > The Voice of Disney Channel
I hope that you immediately thought of Cam Buzz
Brainard when you read the title of this page.
Anybody who watched Disney Channel regularly during the 2000s—and even during the first half of the 2010s—will recognize this fellow's voice. He was the announcer for many of the channel's bumpers, promos, and other material that aired during the breaks between shows; for just a few examples of his extensive work, see this YouTube video of Disney Channel bumpers from 2007, as well as a few recordings of some commercial breaks between shows, captured on 8 February 2009, 22 August 2009, and 16 April 2010.
According to his Wikipedia page, Cam Brainard was the main announcer for Disney Channel from July 2001 to 2016. Although I probably started watching Disney Channel before July 2001, prior to 2003/2004, I only watched the channel's Playhouse Disney block, where he wasn't an announcer; from 2003/2004 to 2006/early 2007, I watched Disney Channel only occasionally, though I do have some faint memories of hearing his voice (along with the other female announcer—see this YouTube video of Disney Channel bumpers from December 2006 to hear her voice) on the channel at that time. When I began watching Disney Channel regularly right around the beginning of the Ribbon Era (2007–2010), Cam's voice was everywhere on the channel: he voiced pretty much every bumper and promo, and during this time I doubt that there was ever a single commercial break where I didn't hear him at least once.
He did not, of course, announce every single thing that aired during the breaks: movie promos and bumpers were, in general, handled by (at least) one other fellow with a deeper voice, and some other things (e.g. mini-series) did not even have an announcer at all. Still, though, it was very clear that he was the channel's main announcer, and for me, he will forever be the voice of Disney Channel; I heard him almost daily when I watched the channel regularly between 2007 to 2013.
Retaining him as the main announcer for so many years was, I think, a very smart move for Disney Channel, as his friendly, easygoing, and warm voice (his IMDb profile describes it as perennially adolescent-sounding
) certainly helped the channel's family-friendly image and invited viewers to stick around. Despite having regularly watched both Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon throughout the entirety of the 2000s (and even into the early 2010s, in the case of Nickelodeon), when I think back, no single announcer's voice from those two channels sticks out to me; they must have either used too many announcers for any particular one to distinguish themselves above the others, or changed announcers too frequently, or both. The only other announcer whose voice I can remember—though not as much as Cam's—is Allyce Beasley, who was the main announcer for the bumpers and promos that aired during Disney Channel's Playhouse Disney block from 2000/2001 to 2007 (see this YouTube video of a Playhouse Disney commercial break from November 2002 for a few examples of her work).
Without him now, I really doubt that Disney Channel will ever feel like the fun and friendly place it used to be back when I still watched it, and it is rather sad to see that kids today who are into Disney Channel will grow up not knowing his warm voice.