Carl Nickle

 

Carl Nickle, on October 1, 1937, took a $62 investment and the goodwill of a local printer and hit the streets the next day with a one-page, single spaced, typewritten journal dedicated to the infant Canadian oil and gas industry. A month later, he mated his daily publication - still only a page, maybe two on a busy day - with a weekly oil bulletin that provided a summary of developments for those " who may be interested in keeping tab on the ... industry for six dollars a year ".

 

Occasion of the bulletin's 20th anniversary, "blew the lid off " the industry.

 

Before launching the bulletin, Nickle had been a full-time reporter with CFCN radio in Calgary where he made his mark by being the first western Canadian to report on the love affair between the Duke of Windsor (soon to become King Edward II) and American divorcee Wallace Simpson.

 

The bulletin struggled along, surviving month to month on a meagre subscription base that began at about 14 - a couple of Calgary newspapers and a handful of oil companies - and never strayed very far from that number. Then in February 1947, Imperial Oil Limited brought in Leduc No. 1, an event which, as Nickle wrote 10 years later on the oc.

 

Career Summary:

• 1937 Launched the "Daily Oil Bulletin".
• 1951 Elected to the House of Commons as Conservative MP for Calgary West.
• 1956 Established Nickle Foundation.
• 1965 Sold 50 percent of C.O. Nickle Publications to Southam Business Publications.
• 1967 Commenced a weekly television broadcast "CFCN Oil Report ".
• 1972 Sold remaining control of C.O. Nickle Publications to Southam Business Publications.