General Tire

Formation

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.

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.

Initially, they focused on repair materials, as with Western Tire, but in 1916 they expanded into tire manufacturing, focusing on high-end products. Early products included:

Growth

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.

Radio, television, and film

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

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

In its advertising in the 1970s and '80s, the brand's slogan was: "Sooner or later, you'll own Generals."

Reorganization

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.