Why has the oven (both bake and broil) on my electric range oven stopped working?

This is the second time this has happened this year! The first time it happened we simply replaced our older appliance with a slightly newer, used one. This one is a GE and has no clock or any self-cleaning controls. It just has the 4 range/burner controls with a single oven control in the middle, which controls both oven temperature and broil. Neither the broil nor baking features work at all, and the indicator light does not come on when I turn on the oven. The range seems to be working fine, however. What's the problem? And why has it happened more than once so recently? We live in a very old house, and I'm concerned about the old wiring. Could there be surges or failures causing this?