Alan Freed

Genres:	Soundtracks
Decades Active:	1950s, 1960s
Search for Artist on:	OLDIES.com, Wikipedia, Flikr (photos), YouTube (videos)
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Biography

15 December 1926, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 20 January 1965. Freed was one of several key individuals who helped to create the audience for rock 'n' roll. As an influential disc jockey, he made enemies among the music business establishment by championing the cause of black artists but his career ended tragically when he was found to be guilty of payola in 1962. The son of European immigrants, he played trombone in a high school band named the Sultans Of Swing. After US Army service, he secured his first radio job in 1946, playing classical records. He moved on to Akron, Ohio, to play contemporary pop material and in 1951 joined WJW Cleveland. There Freed hosted a show sponsored by local record store owner Leo Mintz, consisting of R&B originals rather than white pop cover versions. Entitled Moondog's Rock 'N' Roll Party, the show attracted large audiences of white teenagers who swamped a 1952 concert by the Moonglows, a group Freed had discovered and...

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