verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . november 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message general tire logo used in the 1960s through the 1990s . the general tire and rubber company is an american manufacturer of tires for motor vehicles . general tire was founded in 1915 in akron ohio by william f. o neil . the company later diversified into a conglomerate with holdings in tires rubber compounds rocketry and aeronautics entertainment and news and real estate . the tire and rubber division was sold to germany s continental in 1987 and is now known as continental tire north america inc. the rocketry business was kept and expanded and after a couple company name changes the parent company is now aerojet rocketdyne holdings . contents 1 history 1.1 formation 1.2 growth 1.3 conglomeration 1.3.1 radio television and film 1.3.2 rocketry 2 marketing 3 reorganization 4 references 5 external links history edit formation edit william o neil had a firestone franchise in kansas city . he started a small manufacturing facility for tire repair products and called it western tire and rubber . 1 newspaper ad for general tire from 1919 . as firestone grew it sold additional franchises reducing the territories of its earlier franchisees . dissatisfied o neil decided to compete with firestone instead using the expertise he had gained with western . he went into partnership with his father a department store owner in akron and formed general tire in 1915 using 200 000 in capital borrowed from the store . the o neils hired away some firestone managers . 1 initially they focused on repair materials as with western tire but in 1916 they expanded into tire manufacturing focusing on high end products . 1 early products included 1 2 general jumbo a premium replacement for ford model t trucks low pressure general balloon jumbo dual 90 tires growth edit despite the difficult business climate of world war i in 1917 o neil established a dealership network and began an advertising campaign . by 1930 the company had 14 retail stores and about 1.8 % of the tire market . during the depression as competitors failed general bought out yale tire and rubber and india tire and rubber . by 1933 it had increased market share to 2.7 % . this was a relatively large number considering that the company limited its product line . 1 dead link conglomeration edit radio television and film edit because the depression was particularly hard on manufacturing general bought several ohio radio stations on which it advertised . in 1943 general tire diversified the core business strategy purchasing the yankee network and the radio stations it owned from boston s shepard stores inc. thomas f. o neil son of the founder william f. 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 added khj am fm in los angeles and kfrc am fm in san francisco to its stable from the yankee acquisition . in 1952 it bought wor wor fm wor tv in new 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 from howard 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 in hollywood to lucille ball and desi arnaz s desilu 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 . rocketry edit main article aerojet rocketdyne in the late 1930s the united states army became interested in rockets . a group of california institute of technology engineers won a contract to produce rocket engines to speed airplane liftoff and formed a company named aerojet . the group succeeded with liquid fuel rockets but needed additional materials science and manufacturing expertise to create more sophisticated solid fuel rockets . aerojet went into partnership with general tire using general s capitalization expertise with rubber binders and chemical manufacturing facilities . the partnership was renamed aerojet general . marketing edit in its advertising in the 1970s and 80s the brand s slogan was sooner or later you ll own generals . reorganization edit 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 . references edit a b c d e jones edward . the aerojet general . playing with fire . retrieved october 7 2013 . general tire canada corporate history 1915 1937 external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to general tire . general tire website general tire club v t e continental ag subsidiaries continental automotive systems general tire phoenix ag vdo partners barum v t e aerojet rocketdyne holdings people thomas f. o neil dan a. kimball robert truax subsidiaries aerojet rocketdyne pratt & whitney rocketdyne rocketdyne joint ventures bristol aerojet products aerobee aerojet general x 8 aerozine 50 aquarius lr 87 sea dragon related articles aerojet general tire omnova solutions retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title general tire & oldid 728463841 categories gencorptire 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