Alan Freed

Welcome to Rock & Roll Flashback!  I'm Jumpin' John McDermott, and in today's podcast I will discuss the major influence of disk jockey Alan Freed on the early development of rock and roll!

Alan Freed has secured a place in American music history as the first important rock 'n' roll disc jockey.  Not only was he the first radio disc jockey and concert producer who frequently played and promoted rock and roll, but he popularized the phrase "rock and roll" on mainstream radio.  His on-air manner was energetic, in contrast to other radio DJ's, who were more subdued and low-key while playing traditional pop music.  Freed helped to break down racial barriers in popular music.  He promoted the emerging black musical styles of the 1950s to a white mainstream audience.  He helped bridge the gap of segregation among young teenage Americans, presenting music by black artists (rather than cover versions by white artists) on his radio program.  He also arranged live concerts attended by racially mixed audiences.   Freed's importance to the rock 'n' roll musical genre led to his inclusion with the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.  He was the only non-musician inducted into that first class. 

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott.  The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John.  It was initially recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004 with several revisions since then. 
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Transcript

Thank you for that introduction and welcome to Rock & Roll Flashback!  I'm Jumpin' John McDermott, and we'll be looking back at some of Rock and Roll's greatest artists, songs, and stories.  In today's podcast I will discuss the major influence of disk jockey Alan Freed on the early development of rock and roll!

Albert James Freed was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1921.  Twelve years later his family moved to Salem, Ohio, where Freed attended high school.  While Freed was at Salem High School, he formed a band called the Sultans of Swing, where he played the trombone.  After graduating high school in 1940, Freed briefly attended Ohio State University for two quarters.  He then enlisted in the Army in 1941, where he worked as a DJ on Armed Forces Radio.  Soon after his discharge from the army, Freed attended broadcasting classes at Youngstown's WKBN (570 AM).  He then became a news and sports announcer at WKST (1200 AM) in New Castle, Pennsylvania before returning to WKBN.  Eventually settling in at Akron, Ohio's WAKR (1590 AM) in 1945, Freed was a play-by-play announcer for Akron University's basketball games, a news reporter, and then the afternoon disc jockey.  He became a local favorite for playing jazz and pop recordings.  As a star DJ at WAKR he became known as "The Old Knucklehead."  By June 1948 Freed had up to five hours of airtime every day on the station.  Three of his popular shows were the daytime Jukebox Serenade, the early-evening Wax Works, and the nightly Request Review. Freed had brief run-ins with management and was at one point temporarily fired for violating studio rules and failing to show up for work for several days in a row.

At the height of his popularity in 1948, Freed signed a contract extension with WAKR that included a non-compete clause.  The clause prohibited him from working at any station within a 75 mile radius of Akron for a full year.  Freed left WAKR on February 12, 1950.  After one program on competing Akron station WADC (1350 AM), WAKR and station owner S. Bernard Berk sued Freed to enforce the clause.  Freed lost in court.  Berk's successful implementation of the non-compete clause is now recognized within the industry as a model for broadcasters regarding on-air talent contracts.

In 1949 Billboard Magazine changed the term "race records" to "rhythm and blues" at the suggestion of then-journalist Jerry Wexler.  Up to that time most "race records" had been made exclusively by and for an African-American audience and marketing in stores and on the airwaves was aimed at African-Americans.  In the late 1940's Alan Freed met Leo Mintz, who owned Cleveland, Ohio's Record Rendezvous music store.  Mintz told Freed that he had noticed increased interest of white kids in the rhythm and blues records at his store, and encouraged him to continue playing them on the radio.

By 1951 Freed had moved to Cleveland, which at 39 miles from Akron, was within the range of the still in force non-compete clause.  Fortunately, through the help of William Shipley, of RCA's Northern Ohio distributor Main Line, Freed was released from the non-compete clause.  Freed was then hired by Cleveland's WJW radio (850 AM).  On July 11, 1951, with the sponsorship of Record Rendezvous and the RCA’s Main Line, Freed began playing rhythm and blues records on WJW.  Freed's lively show broadcast R&B hits into the night and early morning.  This is arguably the first time that authentic R&B was featured regularly on a major, mass audience station.  

Alan Freed had been inspired by an instrumental piece called "Moondog Symphony."  The symphony had been recorded by composer and street musician Louis T. Hardin, known professionally as Moondog.  Freed called his 11:15 P.M. to 2 A.M. radio program, "The Moondog Rock & Roll House Party" and "The Moondog House."  His fans were known as "Moondoggers", and he billed himself as "The King of the Moondoggers".  Freed used Todd Rhodes' instrumental tune "Blues for the Red Boy" as the theme song for his radio show.  He referred to the song as "Blues for the Moondog" instead of its actual title.

Freed's show initially was a mixture of popular hits and R&B records, but the music mix quickly evolved into the first so-called rock 'n' roll radio format.  Although disc jockeys across the country were playing R&B records on the radio, Freed was the only one calling it rock and roll.  His radio style consisted of howling and yelling "rock and roll," while pounding on a telephone book and occasionally ringing a cow bell.  His wit and his energetic, on-air excitement fueled his popularity with both black and white teenagers.  

After several months at WJW, Freed began promoting dances that featured the R&B bands he played on his radio show.  Along with promoter Booker Brooks, Freed formed a partnership with Lew Platt.  After a few dances in Akron, Canton, and Vermillion, they promoted a large show at the Cleveland Arena on March 21st, 1952.  Advertised as "the most terrible ball of them all," the event was called the "Moondog Coronation Ball."  The show featured Paul Williams & The Hucklebuckers, Tiny Grimes & The Rockin' Highlanders, the Dominoes, Danny Cobb, and Varetta Dilliard.  Some now consider this event to have been the first major rock and roll concert.  Neither Freed nor the Arena staff were prepared for the large crowd that showed up the night of the concert.  After admitting the capacity of the hall, there were still thousands outside waiting to get in.  When the music started, the huge crowd outside broke down the Arena doors.  Inside, fighting broke out in the audience and the concert ended after the first song.  It took the Cleveland Police and Fire Department several hours to clear the Arena and to stop the fighting.  Cleveland's City Council immediately passed an ordinance making it illegal to oversell the capacity of a public building.  

After issuing a public apology on air the next day, Freed gained notoriety from the incident.  Despite Freed's denial that the show was oversold, he was accused of exposing his young audience to danger.  The local newspapers gave the incident front page coverage, and the wire service spread the story around the world.  Suddenly, the press was talking about rock 'n' roll and its evils.  Ironically WJW immediately increased the airtime allotted to Freed's program, and his popularity soared.  Both his radio program and his concert business thrived.  After the Moondog Ball, Freed's radio program was syndicated in 8 U. S. markets and on the Armed Forces Network in Europe.  Tapes of Freed's program began airing in the New York City area over station WNJR (1430 AM), in Newark, New Jersey.

In July 1954, following his success on the air in Cleveland, Freed moved to WINS (1010 AM) in New York City.  By this time "rock 'n' roll" had became a common term across the nation.  

A couple years later Louis Hardin, the original Moondog, filed a court action suit against WINS for damages against Freed for infringement.  Hardin argued his prior claim to the name "Moondog", under which he had been composing since 1947.  Hardin would end up collecting a $6,000 judgment from Freed, as well as an agreement for Freed to give up further usage of the name Moondog. 

In 1956, Freed hosted "The Camel Rock and Roll Dance Party", so named for the sponsor Camel cigarettes.  The half hour program headlined Count Basie and his Orchestra and later Sam The Man Taylor and His Orchestra.  It featured weekly rock 'n' roll guests such as LaVern Baker, Clyde McPhatter, and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.  The radio program was also referred to as "Alan Freed's Rock 'n' Roll Dance Party" on CBS Radio from New York. 

Freed then started working at New York's WABC (770 AM).  He hosted an evening show each day on WABC, in a similar format to the early rock shows he had gained fame with on WJW in Cleveland, and later WINS in New York.  Freed was also given a weekly primetime TV series, "The Big Beat", which premiered on ABC on July 12, 1957.  The show was scheduled for a summer run, with the understanding that if there were enough viewers, it would continue into the 1957–58 television season.  Although the ratings for the show were strong, it was suddenly terminated.  The Wall Street Journal summarized the end of the program as follows:  [and I quote] "Four episodes into "The Big Beat," Freed's prime-time TV music series on ABC, an uproar was caused when African-American artist Frankie Lymon was seen on TV dancing with a white audience member" [end quote].  Some sources indicate that the cancellation was triggered by an uproar among ABC's local affiliates in the South.

Freed also appeared in five early rock and roll motion pictures during this period. These jukebox musicals were enthusiastically attended by teenagers.  The movies brought visual depictions of their favorite American acts to the big screen, years before music videos would present the same sort of image on the small television screen.  Those five movies were:

•1956’s Rock Around the Clock featuring Freed, Bill Haley & His Comets, The Platters, Freddie Bell and the Bellboys, and Lisa Gaye.

•1956’s Rock, Rock, Rock featuring Freed, Teddy Randazzo, Tuesday Weld, Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Johnny Burnette, LaVern Baker, The Flamingos, and The Moonglows.

Also appearing in the film was saxophonist Freddie Mitchell, who occasionally acted as a bandleader for multi-artist rock shows held by Freed.  Freddie had previously recorded "Moondog Boogie" in honor of the disc jockey. In Rock, Rock, Rock, Freed tells the audience that [and I quote] "rock and roll is a river of music which has absorbed many streams: rhythm and blues, jazz, ragtime, cowboy songs, country songs, folk songs.  All have contributed greatly to the big beat" [end quote].

•1957’s Mister Rock and Roll featuring Freed, Rocky Graziano and Teddy Randazzo, Lionel Hampton, Ferlin Husky, Frankie Lymon, Little Richard, Brook Benton, Chuck Berry, Clyde McPhatter, LaVern Baker, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins.

•1957’s Don't Knock the Rock featuring Freed, Bill Haley and His Comets, Alan Dale, Little Richard and the Upsetters, The Treniers, and Dave Appell and His Applejacks.

•1959’s Go, Johnny Go! featuring Freed, Jimmy Clanton, Chuck Berry, Ritchie Valens, Eddie Cochran, The Flamingos, Jackie Wilson, The Cadillacs, Sandy Stewart, Jo Ann Campbell, Harvey Fuqua, and The Moonglows. In this movie Chuck Berry also played Freed's pal and sidekick, a groundbreaking role in those days.

With his five movies, his TV show on WNEW-TV, and his records on his own label (called “End Records”), Alan Freed had become a world-wide personality.  He promoted successful concerts and toured throughout the eastern states.  However, at a Boston, Massachusetts concert featuring Jerry Lee Lewis in May 1958, Alan Freed ran into trouble.  To prevent dancing in the aisles, the police turned up the lights.  Apologizing to the audience, Freed is reported to have said "the Boston police don't want you to have a good time."  As a result, Freed was arrested and charged with inciting to riot, and was fired from his job at WINS.

The controversial practice of payola is defined as payments from record companies to play specific records.  Alan Freed's career was adversely affected when it was shown that he had accepted some payola.  He initially denied taking payola.  Then, on November 21, 1959, Freed was fired from WABC after refusing to sign a statement for the FCC that he had never received funds or gifts for playing records on the air.  Although payola was not illegal at that time, Freed's refusal and his high profile made him the main scapegoat at future FTC congressional hearings concerning payola in the record industry.  

In 1960, payola was made illegal.  In December 1962, after being charged on multiple counts, Alan Freed pled guilty to two counts of commercial bribery.  He was fined $300 and given a suspended sentence.  Caught up in the broadcasting payola scandal, he later admitted that he had accepted payments from record companies to play their records on the radio. This scandal had led to his dismissal from his television and radio jobs.  With his radio career and concert business essentially over after the payola hearings, Alan Freed was blackballed from the music business.

It was also alleged that Freed had taken songwriting credits that he did not deserve.  The most notable example was Chuck Berry's "Maybellene".  Taking partial credit allowed him to receive part of a song's royalties, which he could help increase by heavily promoting the record on his own program.  Chuck Berry was eventually able to regain the writing credit.  Another group, The Flamingos, also claimed that Freed had wrongly taken writing credit for some of their songs.

Because of the negative publicity from the payola scandal, no prestigious station would employ Freed.  He moved to California in 1960, where he worked at KDAY (1580 AM) in Santa Monica.  He only stayed one year because KDAY refused to allow him to promote "rock and roll" stage shows.  Then in August 1962 Freed moved to WQAM (560 AM) in Miami, Florida.  He was drinking heavily, and the job lasted only two months.  

During 1964, he returned to the Los Angeles area for a short stint at the Long Beach station KNOB (97.9).  That same year Freed was indicted by a federal grand jury for tax evasion and ordered to pay $37,920 in taxes on income he had allegedly not reported.  Most of that income was said to be from payola sources.  Freed did not have the financial means to pay that amount.  Alan Freed died at the age of 43 on January 20, 1965 in Palm Springs, California, from uremia and cirrhosis brought on by alcoholism.  

Since his death Alan Freed has been referenced or mentioned in numerous songs written and performed by rock artists.  He also has been the subject of some movies and shows.  For example, the 1978 motion picture American Hot Wax was inspired by Freed's contribution to the rock and roll scene.  Freed was also the subject of a 1999 television movie, Mr. Rock 'n' Roll: The Alan Freed Story.  The 2023 off-Broadway musical Rock & Roll Man follows Freed's rise and influence in radio using various songs that he played on the radio.

Posthumous accolades for Alan Freed are many.  Here are a few examples:

•Freed's importance to the rock 'n' roll musical genre led to his inclusion with the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.  He was the only non-musician inducted into that first class.

•In 1988, Freed was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.  That organization's web page states that [and I quote] "despite his personal tragedies, Freed’s innovations helped make rock and roll and the Top-40 format permanent fixtures of radio" [end quote].  

•On December 10, 1991, Freed was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

•On February 26, 2002, Freed was honored at the Grammy Awards with the Trustees Award.  

•In 2017 he was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in Detroit, Michigan.

Alan Freed has secured a place in American music history as the first important rock 'n' roll disc jockey.  Not only was he the first radio disc jockey and concert producer who frequently played and promoted rock and roll, but he popularized the phrase "rock and roll" on mainstream radio.  His on-air manner was energetic, in contrast to other radio DJ's, who were more subdued and low-key while playing traditional pop music.  Freed helped to break down racial barriers in popular music.  He promoted the emerging black musical styles of the 1950s to a white mainstream audience.  He helped bridge the gap of segregation among young teenage Americans, presenting music by black artists (rather than cover versions by white artists) on his radio program.  He also arranged live concerts attended by racially mixed audiences.   

In Episode 2 of the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcasts, Bill Price mentioned Alan Freed's important influence on the promotion of rock and roll music.  Freed popularized the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music he played, and his success on the radio and in the concert business would help make rock 'n' roll a household word.  If you are interested in hearing more about the history of the term "rock and roll", be sure to check out our podcast entitled "Rock and Roll: The Beginning and Evolution."

This has been Rock and Roll Flashback…a look at the life and career of influential DJ Alan Freed!  I'm Jumpin' John McDermott, and until next time….Rock On!