After failing an audition for local radio in Winnipeg,[1] ice hockey player Alex Archer suggested that he travel to London to find work as a reporter on games there.

[4] He made his first broadcast in late 1937,[5] and soon began commentating on other sports including speedway racing, swimming, cycling, and boxing, as well as special events such as the Lord Mayor's Show.

A freelance broadcaster, he also took some of his shows on tour in theatres, judged beauty competitions, appeared in advertisements, and wrote popular newspaper columns.

He compered three Royal Variety Performances, published an autobiography, The Mike and I, and in 1949 was voted by Daily Mail readers as "Voice of the Year".

[7][6] In 1951, after accepting an invitation from the King to present his final programme of Twenty Questions from Buckingham Palace, MacPherson and his family returned to Canada.