Broadcaster

Host, announce and present on radio, television and podcasts. Small pay at the start, big pay if you get known.

Typical pay: $58,000a year
Time to qualify: 2 to 4 yearsafter high school
Demand: Moderate
Licence needed: Nono licence to hold

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Where to study to become a broadcaster in Canada

Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.

Colleges

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Quick answers

How much does a broadcaster make in Canada?

The median pay is about $58,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $37,000 at the lower end to about $120,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.

How long does it take to become a broadcaster in Canada?

2 to 4 years after high school, on the usual route.

What does it cost to become a broadcaster?

$400 to $50,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.

Do you need a licence to work as a broadcaster in Canada?

No. There is no licence to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.

What is the job outlook for a broadcaster in Canada?

Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.

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Broadcaster salary in Canada

What you earn and what it costs to get there.

What broadcasters make

Median

$58,000

Lower end

$37,000

Upper end

$120,000

Job Bank's national median is $27.97 an hour, about $58,000 a year full time. The top figure is $57.69 an hour, and a handful of national hosts earn far past it.

Where pay is highest

$34.62 an hour

The median in Quebec, the highest in Canada

Ontario ($32.62) is next, and Saskatchewan is lowest at $26.23. Almost nobody starts in Toronto or Vancouver: you start on overnight or weekend shifts in a small market and move for the next rung.

What it costs to get there

College broadcasting program (2 years): $4,000 to $8,000 a year
University media degree (4 years): $7,000 to $12,000 a year
Home recording setup: $300 to $1,500 for a usable microphone and interface
Moving costs: Real money. Expect to relocate two or three times early on.

Roughly, all in

$400 to $50,000

Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel

The two routes are very far apart. The low end is close to nothing: campus and community radio costs nothing to join and is where most working broadcasters actually learned, so a usable microphone and interface is the whole spend. The high end is a four year university media degree at the top of the tuition range plus a home recording setup. A two year college broadcasting program sits in between at roughly eight to sixteen thousand dollars in total. What the numbers hide is relocation: expect to move two or three times chasing early jobs in small markets, and that is real money.

Campus and community radio costs nothing to join and is where most working broadcasters actually learned.

Other ways the money comes in

Voice work
Commercials, narration, video game and animation voices. Often the steadiest side income in this field.
Live hosting
Corporate events, concerts, charity nights. Paid by the event.
Podcasts
Ad reads and sponsorships, once an audience exists. Most podcasts never get there.
Talent fees
Extra payments when your voice is used in a national campaign rather than a local one.

How to become a broadcaster in Canada

The exact path from high school to qualified.

The path to becoming a broadcaster, step by step

No licence, no exam. A demo reel and a willingness to move are the requirements.

1
High school
Grades 11 and 12
English, drama, media studies. Join or start the school announcements, a podcast, anything with a microphone.
2
Campus or community radio
From age 16 or 17
Air time at no cost and a real audience. Do this whether or not you go to school for it.
3
Broadcasting program
2 to 4 years
A 2-year college broadcasting diploma or a media degree such as the Bachelor of Arts in Media Production at Toronto Metropolitan University.
4
Build a demo reel
During school
Three to five minutes of your best on-air work. Stations hire off this, not off your transcript.
5
First job in a small market
1 to 3 years
Weekends and overnights somewhere far away. Say yes and learn everything.

High school courses that help you become a broadcaster

English
You write most of what you say, and you write it fast.
Drama
Breath, timing and reading out loud without sounding like you are reading.
Media arts or communication technology
Editing audio and video is now part of every on-air job.
A second language
French, Punjabi, Mandarin and Cantonese stations all hire.

Time and money, at a glance

Years after high school: 2 to 4
Admission: Ordinary grades, plus an interview or audition at some colleges
Total tuition: $0 to about $48,000
Paid while training?: Rarely. Campus radio and internships are usually unpaid

The industry is licensed, you are not

You need no credential to be on air. Stations themselves are licensed by the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission), which sets rules on Canadian content and on what can be broadcast. Those rules shape what you play and say, and breaking them is the station's problem and quickly yours. Traditional radio and television audiences have been shrinking for years, and Job Bank rates prospects as limited in Ontario.

Where people study

University media programs
The School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University offers media production and a sport media degree, the only one of its kind in Canada.
College broadcasting diplomas
Two-year programs at colleges in most provinces, usually with a working campus station attached.
Journalism schools
A route in if you want news rather than entertainment.
No school at all
A real path in podcasting and streaming, where the audience is the credential.

Quebec routeIn Quebec? The route is different. 2 more cards.

The path in Quebec

Quebec's college route is a 3 year CEGEP (public college) media program, taught in French and with no tuition for Quebec residents, where the final year is spent on air at a college radio station.

1
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
No set courses are required for the media program. School, campus or community radio is a good place to start.
2
Techniques de communication dans les médias DEC (Diploma of College Studies)
3 years
The media program (589.B0) at Cégep de Jonquière, also offered at Collège Bart. Everyone starts with the same courses, then picks radio, journalism or advertising.
3
Apply through SRASL
Jonquière takes applications through SRASL (its regional admissions service), not SRAM (the Montreal one). Each fall Jonquière admits about 240 students across its two media programs.
4
Final year on air
Third year
Radio students run the college's station for their last year: hosting, live broadcasts and newscasts. Then a 5 week internship at a station.
5
In English: a journalism degree
3 to 4 years
Concordia's BA (Bachelor of Arts) in Journalism, with broadcast labs and studios. Apply with a journalism dossier. You must also show working French.

First jobs from the Quebec radio program

Cégep de Jonquière reports that 94% of its radio graduates find work, as hosts, producers, journalists, researchers or promotion staff, with a starting wage of about $21.53 an hour. At 40 hours a week, that is about $45,000 a year, near the low end of the national range.

What helps you get ahead as a broadcaster

Things you don't need, but that help.

Things that get you hired faster

Sports play-by-play
A distinct skill with its own shortage. Junior hockey and university games are where you practise.
News reading
Stations want people who can cover a shift and read a bulletin cleanly.
Audio editing
Cutting your own segments makes you cheaper to employ, which is the point.
Social video
Every on-air role now includes short vertical video. Stations check your following.

Nice-to-haves

A clean driving record
Remote broadcasts, station vehicles and live events.
Voice training
A coach for a few sessions beats years of guessing.
A second skill inside the station
Sales, promotions or production keeps you employed when on-air hours get cut.
Thick skin
Feedback is public, instant and often personal.

What being a broadcaster is really like

Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.

A typical shift

A morning host is at the station by 4:30am, reading the news, scanning social feeds and lining up the show. On air from 6 to 10, talking in 45 second breaks between songs or segments. Then recording commercials, cutting clips for social, planning tomorrow, and a remote broadcast from a car dealership at 4pm. Afternoon and evening shifts are calmer. Weekends and holidays are normal because stations never stop.

The honest pros and cons of being a broadcaster

The good

Short, affordable training and no licensing exam
You can start building a reel at 16 at no cost
Real ceiling if you become known in a big market
Skills transfer straight into podcasting, voice work and hosting

The hard parts

Low starting pay and early shifts that wreck your sleep
Traditional radio and television audiences are shrinking and stations keep cutting staff
You have to move, repeatedly, to move up
Job security is poor. Format changes end careers overnight

Work life

Typical hours: 40 a week, often starting before 5am
Remote work: Some, since many shows are now recorded from home studios
Physical demand: Low, but the sleep schedule is hard
Unionized: Sometimes, mainly at public and large private broadcasters

Similar paths

Things nobody tells you about being a broadcaster

Things people don't tell you.

Canada has one of the world's oldest public broadcasters

The national public broadcaster began as a radio commission in 1932, created partly so that people in remote parts of the country could hear Canadian voices instead of only American stations.

Screen work is a bigger industry than people expect

The Canadian Media Producers Association's Profile 2025 counts 181,360 jobs in film and television production in fiscal 2024 to 2025, and 58,000 of them in Canadian television.

The morning drive is the prize

In radio, the 6am to 10am slot draws the most listeners and carries the highest advertising rates, so it is the show stations work hardest to get right.

Foreign shoots are the biggest share

Of the 181,360 jobs in Canadian screen production in 2024 to 2025, 97,920, or 54%, came from foreign shoots filmed here, the Canadian Media Producers Association reports.

How a broadcaster compares

Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.

Highest paying creative careers in Canada22 of 27

More creative careers in Canada

Writing and media first, then the rest of the field. See every career in creative.

Where these numbers come from

Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.