Frederick Van Veen

The General Radio Story Frederick Van Veen

"The General Radio Story" tells the remarkable tale of one of the true pioneers of electronics. Founded in 1915, "GR" gave the young electronics industry (then called "radio") the essential tools of the trade - wavemeters, signal generators, voltmeters, frequency standards, etc. - and was no less innovative in its employment policies, navigating the Great Depression without laying off a single employee and even making its workers whole when a local bank failed. As measuring instruments morphed into "ATE" (automatic test equipment), General Radio reinvented itself as GenRad and was the first to offer automatic circuit-board test systems. GR's 86-year run ended in 2001, when the Company was acquired by Teradyne, Inc.