Although disc jockey and promoter Alan Freed did not invent the term “rock’n’roll,” he certainly did more than anyone else to popularise it. Through the medium of radio, TV, film, and concert venues throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, Freed helped to broaden the appeal of rhythm and blues (R&B), which he called rock’n’roll to distinguish it from an almost exclusively black medium, making it viable for white teenagers. Today’s rock fans can be thankful for the artists and tunes Freed brought us—despite the fact that some of them came with bribes.
Born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on December 15, 1922, Freed started out as a lover of classical music, learning the trombone at high school. It was in the early 1940s at Ohio State University in Columbus that the young Freed fell in love with radio. After a short stint in the armed forces, he started to work at small local stations, promoting classical music.
While working in Cleveland in the early 1950s, Freed was introduced by record-store owner Leo Mintz to a different musical genre, that was dubbed by Billboard magazine as “rhythm and blues.” At the time, this was predominantly performed by and intended for urban blacks, but before long Freed began to sense its appeal to young whites. At the same time, he expanded into the production of R&B concerts (with primarily black audiences at first) and the management of aspiring artists. The genre suited Freed’s wild radio personality, which went under the alias of “The Moon Dog.” However, his relentless and exhaustive promotion of himself led to reckless living and a near-fatal car crash in 1953.
Soon after this, a move to radio station WINS in New York boosted Freed’s salary, his radio listeners, and the size of his live shows, which by early 1955 were being billed as “Rock’n’Roll Jubilee Balls.” Many of the acts featured by Freed, including Fats DOMINO, Jackie Wilson, and the Drifters, had already earned their R&B credentials. Their ascent into rock stardom was, however, facilitated both by Billboard’s introduction of a Top 100 and by Freed’s recorded compilations, his national TV specials, from 1957 on, as well as his involvement in Hollywood movies—the first being “Rock Around the Clock,” in 1956. Ultimately, however, although Freed helped launch newcomers such as Chuck BERRY, his huge ego began to alienate the station managers and other authorities.
At about this time, a younger disc jockey named Dick Clark began supplanting Freed’s reputation with his own televised American Bandstand, and Freed underwent the first of a series of dismissals by intolerant radio executives. In addition, federal investigators turned their attention to radio payola. Freed was an easy target, because of his reputation for “corrupting” American youth and his volatile personality. His refusal to join his colleagues in signing a form denying that he’d ever accepted payola led to his being convicted on two charges of bribery, for which he was made to pay a $300 fine and given a suspended six-month jail sentence.
In retrospect, it is easy to find instances of Freed’s abuse of his power: he accepted cash, material gifts, and bogus songwriting credits from recording executives in return for hyping particular songs. But such practices were relatively common in the 1950s, and had existed in one form or another for nearly a century.
With his East Coast reputation in ruins, Freed moved to Los Angeles for his final radio show, with KDAY. Meanwhile, he proceeded to drown his misery in alcohol, the physical effects of which were exacerbated by the long-term effects of internal injuries from his 1953 car crash. On January 20, 1965, Freed died, age 44, in Palm Springs, California, with precious few friends or funds. The story of this rock founder survives as both an inspiration and a warning to those in the music business.
Jeff Kaliss
SEE ALSO:
CHARTS; RADIO; ROCK MUSIC; ROCK’N’ROLL.
Jackson, John A. Big Beat Heat: Alan Freed and
the Early Years of Rock’n’roll
(Oxford: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1991).
Alan Freed’s Rock’n’roll Dance Party.