- General Tire
The General Tire and Rubber Company is an American manufacturer of
tire s formotor vehicles .General Tire was founded in 1915 in
Akron, Ohio byWilliam F. O'Neil . In 1943 General Tire branched out from its core business by purchasing theYankee Network and the radio stations it owned fromBoston 'sShepard Stores , Inc. Thomas F. O'Neil, son of the founderWilliam O'Neil , served as Yankee's chairman with Shepard's John Shepard III serving as president.General Tire continued its move into broadcasting by acquiring the
Don Lee Broadcasting System , a well-respected regional radio network on the West Coast, in 1950. Among other stations, it addedKHJ-AM -FM inLos Angeles and KFRC-AM-FM inSan Francisco to its stable from the Yankee acquisition. In 1952, it bought WOR/WOR-FM/WOR-TV inNew York City and merged its broadcasting interests into a new division, General Teleradio.General Tire's final move into entertainment was the acquisition of
RKO Radio Pictures fromHoward Hughes in 1955 for $25 million. General Tire was interested mainly in using the RKO film library to program its television stations, so it sold the RKO lot at Sunset and Gower inHollywood toLucille Ball andDesi Arnaz 'sDesilu Productions in 1956 for $6 million. The remaining assets of RKO were merged with General Teleradio, and the new company eventually became known as RKO General. The radio stations became some of the leading broadcasters in the world, but the division was dragged down by unethical conduct at its television stations. This culminated in the longest licensing dispute in television history, eventually forcing RKO General out of the broadcasting business.General Tire reorganized its holdings into the holding company
GenCorp in 1984, with General Tire and RKO General as subsidiaries.GenCorp sold General Tire to German tire maker
Continental AG in 1987. General Tire still exists today as part of Continental's American operations.In its TV advertising in the 1970s, their musical
tagline was: "Sooner or later, you'll own Generals".in
Mexico Between Late-40s and Early 80s, the company are named "General Popo"ee also
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Crosley Motors External links
* [http://www.generaltire.com General Tire Homepage]
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