Guess What Radio Station First Popularized Rock ‘n’ Roll?

Guess What? In 1951, WJW radio was home to Cleveland DJ, Alan Freed. His hit dance show featured R&B music which he coined the phrase “Rock and Roll.” Freed called himself “the Moondog” and billed his show as the “Moondog Rock ‘n’ Roll Party.”  He sponsored the 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball in Cleveland, Ohio which is believed to be the nation’s first rock and roll concert. With his popularity growing, he took his show to WINS New York and then celebrated all-star shows he promoted at Brooklyn’s Paramount Theater. Those stage shows remain the essential rock and roll revues of the era. Later, the tangled favors of this period would come back to haunt him in the payola scandals of the late Fifties. Amid the atmosphere of a witch hunt, Freed steadfastly maintained that he never played a record he didn’t like. Nonetheless, he was blackballed within the business and died a broken man in 1965.

Check out alanfreed.com for more information.