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62-614: The Thomson-Houston Electric Company was a manufacturing company that was one of the precursors of General Electric . The company began as the American Electric Company, founded by Elihu Thomson and Edwin Houston . In 1882, Charles Albert Coffin led a group of investors—largely shoe manufacturers from Lynn, Massachusetts —in buying American Electric from investors in New Britain, Connecticut . They renamed

124-538: A $ 3 billion deal and also bought a $ 1.6 billion portfolio of retail credit cards from Citigroup Inc. On October 14, 2010, GE announced the acquisition of data migration & SCADA simulation specialists Opal Software. In December 2010, for the second time that year (after the Dresser acquisition), GE bought the oil sector company Wellstream , an oil pipe maker, for 800 million pounds ($ 1.3 billion). In March 2011, GE announced that it had completed

186-522: A Ponzi Scheme run by Bernard Madoff , accused General Electric of being a "bigger fraud than Enron," alleging $ 38 billion in accounting fraud. GE denied wrongdoing. On October 6, 2020, General Electric reported it received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission stating the SEC may take civil action for possible violations of securities laws. Ivar Giaever In 1975, he

248-538: A controlling interest in the company, while GE would retain a 49% stake and would buy out shares owned by Vivendi. Vivendi would sell its 20% stake in NBCUniversal to GE for US$ 5.8 billion. Vivendi would sell 7.66% of NBCUniversal to GE for US$ 2 billion if the GE/Comcast deal was not completed by September 2010 and then sell the remaining 12.34% stake of NBCUniversal to GE for US$ 3.8 billion when

310-590: A division of GE called GE Information Systems (GEIS). The new company, named GXS , is based in Gaithersburg, Maryland . GXS is a provider of business-to-business e-commerce solutions. GE maintains a minority stake in GXS. Also in 2002, GE Wind Energy was formed when GE bought the wind turbine manufacturing assets of Enron Wind after the Enron scandals . In 2004, GE bought 80% of Vivendi Universal Entertainment,

372-578: A few years later with Thomson-Houston Electric Company , led by Charles Coffin . In 1887, Hart left to become superintendent of the Edison Electric Company. General Electric was formed through the 1892 merger of Edison General Electric Company and Thomson-Houston Electric Company with the support of Drexel, Morgan & Co. The original plants of both companies continue to operate under the GE banner to this day. The General Electric business

434-515: A joint venture in steam turbines, plus a €3.1 billion cash investment. In June 2014, a formal offer from GE worth $ 17 billion was agreed by the Alstom board. Part of the transaction involved the French government taking a 20% stake in Alstom to help secure France's energy and transport interests and French jobs. A rival offer from Siemens Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was rejected. The acquisition

496-467: A long-time Edison supporter and investor, proposed to consolidate all of business interests. The proposal was supported by Samuel Insull - who served as his secretary and, later, financier - as well other investors. In 1889, Drexel, Morgan & Co. —a company founded by J.P. Morgan and Anthony J. Drexel —financed Edison's research and helped merge several of Edison's separate companies under one corporation, forming Edison General Electric Company, which

558-521: A manufacturer of dynamos and large electric motors in Schenectady, New York ; Bergmann & Company, a manufacturer of electric lighting fixtures , sockets , and other electric lighting devices; and Edison Electric Light Company, the patent -holding company and financial arm for Edison's lighting experiments, backed by J. P. Morgan (1837–1913) and the Vanderbilt family . Henry Villard,

620-546: Is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters . Giaever has repeatedly professed skepticism of global warming , calling it a "new religion". On 13 September 2011, he resigned from the American Physical Society over its official position. Giaever is currently a science advisor with American conservative and libertarian think tank The Heartland Institute . Giaever

682-521: Is one of GE's four multifunctional shared services centers worldwide in Pudong , China; Budapest , Hungary; and Monterrey , Mexico. In April 2015, GE announced its intention to sell off its property portfolio, worth $ 26.5 billion, to Wells Fargo and The Blackstone Group . It was announced in April 2015 that GE would sell most of its finance unit and return around $ 90 billion to shareholders as

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744-652: The Fortune 500 as the 33rd largest firm in the United States by gross revenue . In 2023, the company was ranked 64th in the Forbes Global 2000 . In 2011, GE ranked among the Fortune 20 as the 14th most profitable company, but later very severely underperformed the market (by about 75%) as its profitability collapsed. Two employees of GE— Irving Langmuir (1932) and Ivar Giaever (1973)—have been awarded

806-569: The DATANET-30 and Datanet 355 message switching computers (DATANET-30 and 355 were also used as front end processors for GE mainframe computers). A Datanet 500 computer was designed but never sold. In 1956 Homer Oldfield had been promoted to General Manager of GE's Computer Department. He facilitated the invention and construction of the Bank of America ERMA system, the first computerized system designed to read magnetized numbers on checks. But he

868-505: The Multics operating system on the GE 645 mainframe computer. The project took longer than expected and was not a major commercial success, but it demonstrated concepts such as single-level storage , dynamic linking , hierarchical file system , and ring-oriented security . Active development of Multics continued until 1985. GE got into computer manufacturing because, in the 1950s, they were

930-577: The NBC television network for $ 6.28 billion; this merger surpassed the Capital Cities/ABC merger from earlier that year as the largest non-oil company merger in world business history. The remainder of RCA's divisions and assets were sold to various companies, including Bertelsmann Music Group which acquired RCA Records . Thomson SA , which licensed the manufacture of RCA and GE branded electronics, traced its roots to Thomson-Houston, one of

992-561: The National Broadcasting Company (NBC), which built two radio broadcasting networks. In 1930, General Electric was charged with antitrust violations and was ordered to divest itself of RCA. In 1927, Ernst Alexanderson of GE made the first demonstration of television broadcast reception at his General Electric Realty Plot home at 1132 Adams Road in Schenectady, New York. On January 13, 1928, he made what

1054-577: The Nobel Prize . Following the Great Recession of the late 2000s decade, General Electric began selling off various divisions and assets, including its appliances and financial capital divisions, under Jeff Immelt 's leadership as CEO. John Flannery, Immelt's replacement in 2017, further divested General Electric's assets in locomotives and lighting in order to focus the company more on aviation. After restrictions on air travel during

1116-663: The arc lamp and dynamo patent disputes between them. In 1892, Thomson-Houston was merged with the Edison General Electric Company of Schenectady, New York (arranged by John Pierpoint Morgan ), to form the General Electric Company. The Lynn plant, along with one in Schenectady, remain to this day as the two original GE factories. British Thomson-Houston (BTH) was created as a subsidiary of (American) General Electric in May 1896. It

1178-647: The transmission of electrical power . In 1896, General Electric was one of the original 12 companies listed on the newly formed Dow Jones Industrial Average , where it remained a part of the index for 122 years, though not continuously. In 1911, General Electric absorbed the National Electric Lamp Association (NELA) into its lighting business. GE established its lighting division headquarters at Nela Park in East Cleveland, Ohio . The lighting division has since remained in

1240-399: The 9HA. After the break, GE developed new protective coatings and heat treatment methods. Gas turbines represent a significant portion of GE Power's revenue, and also represent a significant portion of the power generation fleet of several utility companies in the United States. Chubu Electric of Japan and Électricité de France also had units that were impacted. Initially, GE did not realize

1302-540: The COVID-19 pandemic caused General Electric's revenue to fall significantly in 2020, GE's final CEO Larry Culp announced in November 2021 that General Electric was to be broken up into three separate, public companies— GE Aerospace , GE HealthCare , and GE Vernova —by 2024. The new companies are respectively focused on aerospace, healthcare, and energy. GE HealthCare's spin-off was finalized on January 4, 2023. This

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1364-754: The Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (CFTH) was formed in Paris , a sister company to GE in the United States. It is from this company that Alstom would evolve. A demerger in 1999 formed what is now Vantiva and Thomson-CSF . General Electric General Electric Company ( GE ) was an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the state of New York and headquartered in Boston . The company had several divisions, including aerospace , energy , healthcare , and finance . In 2020, GE ranked among

1426-656: The Denver television station until in 1986, when General Electric bought out RCA and made it into an owned-and-operated station by NBC . It even stayed on until 1995 when it was transferred to a joint venture between CBS and Group W in a swap deal, alongside KUTV in Salt Lake City for longtime CBS O&O in Philadelphia, WCAU-TV . Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license . Led by Sanford Alexander Moss , GE moved into

1488-895: The Nobel Prize, he has also been awarded the Oliver E. Buckley Prize by the American Physical Society in 1965, the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1966, and the Zworykin Award by the National Academy of Engineering in 1975. In 1985, he was awarded an honorary degree , doctor honoris causa, at the Norwegian Institute of Technology , later part of Norwegian University of Science and Technology . He

1550-529: The U.S. Army Air Corps to select GE to develop the nation's first jet engine during the war. This experience, in turn, made GE a natural selection to develop the Whittle W.1 jet engine that was demonstrated in the United States in 1941. GE was ranked ninth among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. However, their early work with Whittle's designs was later handed to Allison Engine Company . GE Aviation then emerged as one of

1612-520: The U.S. and Canada. The exact terms of the sale were not disclosed, but the final price would be based on the value of the assets at closing, plus a premium according to the parties. In October 2015, activist investor Nelson Peltz 's fund Trian bought a $ 2.5 billion stake in the company. In January 2016, Haier acquired GE's appliance division for $ 5.4 billion. In October 2016, GE Renewable Energy agreed to pay €1.5 billion to Doughty Hanson & Co for LM Wind Power during 2017. At

1674-443: The acquisition of Hydril Pressure & Control in 2008 for $ 1.1 billion. GE Plastics was sold in 2008 to SABIC (Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation). In May 2008, GE announced it was exploring options for divesting the bulk of its consumer and industrial business. On December 3, 2009, it was announced that NBCUniversal would become a joint venture between GE and cable television operator Comcast . Comcast would hold

1736-459: The acquisition of privately held Lineage Power Holdings from The Gores Group . In April 2011, GE announced it had completed its purchase of John Wood plc's Well Support Division for $ 2.8 billion. In 2011, GE Capital sold its $ 2 billion Mexican assets to Santander for $ 162 million and exited the business in Mexico. Santander additionally assumed the portfolio debts of GE Capital in

1798-657: The company Thomson-Houston Electric Company and moved its operations to a new building on Lynn's Western Avenue. Coffin led the company and organized its finances, marketing, and sales operations. Edwin Rice organized the manufacturing facilities, and Elihu Thomson ran the Model Room, a precursor to the industrial research lab. With their leadership, the company grew into an enterprise with sales of $ 10,000,000 (equivalent to about $ 339,000,000 in 2023) and 4,000 employees by 1892. In 1884, Thomson-Houston International Company

1860-800: The company expanded into cable with the launch of a franchise, which was awarded to a non-exclusive franchise in Schenectady through subsidiary General Electric Cablevision Corporation. On February 15, 1965, General Electric expanded its holdings in order to acquire more television stations to meet the maximum limit of the FCC, and more cable holdings through subsidiaries General Electric Broadcasting Company and General Electric Cablevision Corporation. The company also owned television stations such as KOA-TV (now KCNC-TV ) in Denver and WSIX-TV (later WNGE-TV, now WKRN ) in Nashville, but like WRGB, General Electric sold off most of its broadcasting holdings, but held on to

1922-404: The company was renamed back to Baker Hughes. In May 2017, GE had signed $ 15 billion of business deals with Saudi Arabia . Saudi Arabia is one of GE's largest customers. In September 2017, GE announced the sale of its Industrial Solutions Business to ABB . The deal closed on June 30, 2018. On August 15, 2019, Harry Markopolos , a financial fraud investigator known for his discovery of

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1984-630: The company's longtime stake in television and film media. In April 2013, GE acquired oilfield pump maker Lufkin Industries for $ 2.98 billion. In April 2014, it was announced that GE was in talks to acquire the global power division of French engineering group Alstom for a figure of around $ 13 billion. A rival joint bid was submitted in June 2014 by Siemens and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) with Siemens seeking to acquire Alstom's gas turbine business for €3.9 billion, and MHI proposing

2046-531: The country. Following this, GE Capital focused on its core business and shed its non-core assets. In June 2012, CEO and President of GE Jeff Immelt said that the company would invest ₹ 3 billion to accelerate its businesses in Karnataka . In October 2012, GE acquired $ 7 billion worth of bank deposits from MetLife Inc . On March 19, 2013, Comcast bought GE's shares in NBCU for $ 16.7 billion, ending

2108-520: The deal was completed or to the public via an IPO if the deal was not completed. On March 1, 2010, GE announced plans to sell its 20.85% stake in Turkey-based Garanti Bank. In August 2010, GE Healthcare signed a strategic partnership to bring cardiovascular Computed Tomography (CT) technology from start-up Arineta Ltd. of Israel to the hospital market. In October 2010, GE acquired gas engines manufacturer Dresser Industries in

2170-426: The end of October 2016, it was announced that GE was under negotiations for a deal valued at about $ 30 billion to combine GE Oil & Gas with Baker Hughes . The transaction would create a publicly traded entity controlled by GE. It was announced that GE Oil & Gas would sell off its water treatment business, GE Water & Process Technologies, as part of its divestment agreement with Baker Hughes. The deal

2232-637: The firm looked to trim down on its holdings and rid itself of its image of a "hybrid" company, working in both banking and manufacturing. In August 2015, GE Capital agreed to sell its Healthcare Financial Services business to Capital One for US$ 9 billion. The transaction involved US$ 8.5 billion of loans made to a wide array of sectors, including senior housing, hospitals, medical offices, outpatient services, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. Also in August 2015, GE Capital agreed to sell GE Capital Bank's on-line deposit platform to Goldman Sachs . Terms of

2294-502: The largest user of computers outside the United States federal government , aside from being the first business in the world to own a computer. Its major appliance manufacturing plant " Appliance Park " was the first non-governmental site to host one. However, in 1970, GE sold its computer division to Honeywell , exiting the computer manufacturing industry, though it retained its timesharing operations for some years afterward. GE

2356-560: The most important predictions of the BCS theory of superconductivity, which had been developed in 1957. Giaever's experimental demonstration of tunnelling in superconductors stimulated the theoretical physicist Brian Josephson to work on the phenomenon, leading to his prediction of the Josephson effect in 1962. Esaki and Giaever shared half of the 1973 Nobel Prize, and Josephson received the other half. Giaever's research later in his career

2418-452: The new field of aircraft turbo superchargers . This technology also led to the development of industrial gas turbine engines used for power production. GE introduced the first set of superchargers during World War I and continued to develop them during the interwar period . Superchargers became indispensable in the years immediately before World War II. GE supplied 300,000 turbo superchargers for use in fighter and bomber engines. This work led

2480-550: The original components of GE. Also in 1986, Kidder, Peabody & Co. , a U.S.-based securities firm, was sold to GE and following heavy losses was sold to PaineWebber in 1994. In 1997, Genpact was founded as a unit of General Electric in Gurgaon . The company was founded as GE Capital International Services (GECIS).  In the beginning, GECIS created processes for outsourcing back-office activities for GE Capital such as processing car loans and credit card transactions. It

2542-557: The parent of Universal Pictures from Vivendi . Vivendi bought 20% of NBC, forming the company NBCUniversal . GE then owned 80% of NBCUniversal and Vivendi owned 20%. In 2004, GE completed the spin-off of most of its mortgage and life insurance assets into an independent company, Genworth Financial , based in Richmond, Virginia . In May 2007, GE acquired Smiths Aerospace for $ 4.8 billion. Also in 2007, GE Oil & Gas acquired Vetco Gray for $ 1.9 billion, followed by

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2604-516: The remedies proposed by GE were insufficient to resolve the competition concerns resulting from the proposed acquisition of Honeywell". On June 27, 2014, GE partnered with collaborative design company Quirky to announce its connected LED bulb called Link. The Link bulb is designed to communicate with smartphones and tablets using a mobile app called Wink . In December 1985, GE reacquired the RCA Corporation , primarily to gain ownership of

2666-712: The same location. Owen D. Young, who was then GE's general counsel and vice president, through GE, founded the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1919. This came after Young, while working with senior naval officers, purchased the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America , which was a subsidiary of the British company Marconi Wireless and Signal Company. He aimed to expand international radio communications. GE used RCA as its retail arm for radio sales. In 1926, RCA co-founded

2728-516: The time, and GE increased engineering and supplies for the Wind Division and doubled the annual sales to $ 1.2 billion in 2003. It acquired ScanWind in 2009. In 2018, GE Power garnered press attention when a model 7HA gas turbine in Texas was shut down for two months due to the break of a turbine blade . This model uses similar blade technology to GE's newest and most efficient model,

2790-596: The transaction were not disclosed, but the sale included US$ 8 billion of on-line deposits and another US$ 8 billion of brokered certificates of deposit. The sale was part of GE's strategic plan to exit the U.S. banking sector and to free itself from tightening banking regulations. GE also aimed to shed its status as a "systematically important financial institution". In September 2015, GE Capital agreed to sell its transportation finance unit to Canada's Bank of Montreal . The unit sold had US$ 8.7 billion (CA$ 11.5 billion) of assets, 600 employees, and 15 offices in

2852-504: The turbine blade issue of the 9FB unit would impact the new HA units. GE was one of the eight major computer companies of the 1960s along with IBM , Burroughs , NCR , Control Data Corporation , Honeywell , RCA , and UNIVAC . GE had a line of general purpose and special purpose computers, including the GE 200 , GE 400 , and GE 600 series general-purpose computers, the GE/PAC 4000 series real-time process control computers, and

2914-461: The world's largest engine manufacturers, bypassing the British company Rolls-Royce plc . Some consumers boycotted GE light bulbs, refrigerators, and other products during the 1980s and 1990s. The purpose of the boycott was to protest against GE's role in nuclear weapons production. In 2002, GE acquired the wind power assets of Enron during its bankruptcy proceedings. Enron Wind was the only surviving U.S. manufacturer of large wind turbines at

2976-606: Was a major provider of computer time-sharing services through General Electric Information Services (GEIS, now GXS), offering online computing services that included GEnie . In 2000, when United Technologies Corp. planned to buy Honeywell, GE made a counter-offer that was approved by Honeywell. On July 3, 2001, the European Union issued a statement that "prohibit the proposed acquisition by General Electric Co. of Honeywell Inc.". The reasons given were it "would create or strengthen dominant positions on several markets and that

3038-602: Was an experimental concept at the time and the beginning of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. GE sold 60% stake in Genpact to General Atlantic and Oak Hill Capital Partners in 2005 and hived off Genpact into an independent business. GE is still a major client to Genpact today for services in customer service, finance, information technology, and analytics. In 2001, GE acquired Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo and incorporated it into NBC. In 2002, Francisco Partners and Norwest Venture Partners acquired

3100-617: Was cleared by the EU in May 2017, and by the United States Department of Justice in June 2017. The merger agreement was approved by shareholders at the end of June 2017. On July 3, 2017, the transaction was completed, and Baker Hughes became a GE company and was renamed Baker Hughes, a GE Company (BHGE). In November 2018, GE reduced its stake in Baker Hughes to 50.4%. On October 18, 2019, GE reduced its stake to 36.8% and

3162-612: Was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering for contributions in the discovery and elaboration of electron tunneling into superconductors. Giaever is a professor emeritus at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the president of the company Applied Biophysics. Giaever earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim in 1952. In 1954, he emigrated from Norway to Canada, where he

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3224-578: Was employed by the Canadian division of General Electric . He moved to the United States four years later, joining General Electric's Corporate Research and Development Center in Schenectady, New York, in 1958. He has lived in Niskayuna, New York , since then, taking up US citizenship in 1964. While working for General Electric, Giaever earned a Ph.D. degree at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1964. The work that led to Giaever's Nobel Prize

3286-618: Was expected to be completed in 2015. In October 2014, GE announced it was considering the sale of its Polish banking business Bank BPH . Later in 2014, General Electric announced plans to open its global operations center in Cincinnati , Ohio. The Global Operations Center opened in October 2016 as home to GE's multifunctional shared services organization. It supports the company's finance/accounting, human resources, information technology, supply chain, legal and commercial operations, and

3348-608: Was fired from GE in 1958 by Ralph J. Cordiner for overstepping his bounds and successfully gaining the ERMA contract. Cordiner was strongly against GE entering the computer business because he did not see the potential in it. In 1962, GE started developing its GECOS (later renamed GCOS) operating system , originally for batch processing , but later extended to time-sharing and transaction processing . Versions of GCOS are still in use today. From 1964 to 1969, GE and Bell Laboratories (which soon dropped out) joined with MIT to develop

3410-529: Was followed by the spin-off of GE's portfolio of energy businesses on April 2, 2024, into GE Vernova. Following these transactions, General Electric Company changed its trading name to GE Aerospace, pivoted to aviation, and ceased to exist as a conglomerate. During 1889, Thomas Edison (1847–1931) had business interests in many electricity-related companies, including Edison Lamp Company, a lamp manufacturer in East Newark, New Jersey ; Edison Machine Works ,

3472-584: Was incorporated in New York on April 24, 1889. The new company acquired Sprague Electric Railway & Motor Company in the same year. The consolidation did not involve all of the companies established by Edison; notably, the Edison Illuminating Company , which would later become Consolidated Edison , was not part of the merger. In 1880, Gerald Waldo Hart formed the American Electric Company of New Britain, Connecticut , which merged

3534-457: Was incorporated in New York, with the Schenectady plant used as headquarters for many years thereafter. Around the same time, General Electric's Canadian counterpart, Canadian General Electric , was formed. In 1893, General Electric bought the business of Rudolf Eickemeyer in Yonkers, New York , along with all of its patents and designs. Eickemeyer's firm had developed transformers for use in

3596-552: Was mainly in the field of biophysics . In 1969, he researched biophysics for a year as a fellow at Clare Hall , University of Cambridge , through a Guggenheim Fellowship, and he continued to work in this area after he returned to the US. He has co-signed a letter from over 70 Nobel laureate scientists to the Louisiana Legislature supporting the repeal of Louisiana ’s Louisiana Science Education Act . In addition to

3658-746: Was organized to promote international sales. In 1885, the Lynn G.A.R. Hall was constructed using electric incandescent lighting by Thomson-Houston. In 1888, Thomson-Houston supplied the Lynn & Boston Railroad with the generation and propulsion equipment for the Highland Circuit in Lynn, the first electric streetcar in Massachusetts . In 1889, Thomson-Houston bought out the Brush Company (founded by Charles Brush ) which resolved

3720-426: Was performed at General Electric in 1960. Following on Esaki's discovery of electron tunnelling in semiconductors in 1958, Giaever showed that tunnelling also took place in superconductors, demonstrating tunnelling through a very thin layer of oxide surrounded on both sides by metal in a superconducting or normal state. Giaever's experiments demonstrated the existence of an energy gap in superconductors, one of

3782-534: Was previously known as Laing, Wharton, and Down which was founded in 1886. BTH became part of Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) in 1928, which saw BTH merged with its rival Metropolitan-Vickers . This deal made AEI the largest military contractor of the British Empire during the 1930s and the 1940s, so during World War II . AEI would itself be acquired by the General Electric Company (GEC) in 1967. GEC demerged its defense businesses in 1999 to become Marconi plc and Marconi Corporation plc, now Telent . In 1893,

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3844-433: Was said to be the first broadcast to the public in the United States on GE's W2XAD : the pictures were picked up on 1.5 square inches (9.7 square centimeters) screens in the homes of four GE executives. The sound was broadcast on GE's WGY (AM) . Experimental television station W2XAD evolved into the station WRGB , which, along with WGY and WGFM (now WRVE ), was owned and operated by General Electric until 1983. In 1965,

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