Albert James "Alan" Freed was an American disc jockey.
46 Facts About Alan Freed
2.
Alan Freed produced and promoted large traveling concerts with various acts, helping to spread the importance of rock and roll music throughout North America.
3.
In 1986, Freed was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
4.
Alan Freed was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991.
5.
In 1933, Alan Freed's family moved to Salem, Ohio, where Alan Freed attended Salem High School, graduating in 1940.
6.
Alan Freed served in the US Army during World War II and worked as a DJ on Armed Forces Radio.
7.
Alan Freed enjoyed listening to these new styles because he liked the rhythms and tunes.
8.
Alan Freed was the first radio disc jockey and concert producer who frequently played and promoted rock and roll; he popularized the phrase "rock and roll" on mainstream radio in the early 1950s.
9.
Alan Freed helped bridge the gap of segregation among young teenage Americans, presenting music by black artists on his radio program, and arranging live concerts attended by racially mixed audiences.
10.
In June 1945, Alan Freed joined WAKR in Akron, Ohio, and quickly became a star announcer.
11.
Alan 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.
12.
At the height of his popularity in 1948, Freed signed a contract extension with WAKR that included a non-compete clause inserted by owner S Bernard Berk, preventing Freed from working at any station within a radius of 75 miles of Akron for a full year.
13.
Alan Freed left WAKR on February 12,1950, and after one program on competing station WADC several days later, Berk and WAKR sued Alan Freed to enforce the clause.
14.
Alan Freed repeatedly lost in court, even after appealing his case to the Supreme Court of Ohio; Berk's successful implementation of the non-compete is recognized within the industry as a model for broadcasters regarding on-air talent contracts.
15.
In 1951, having already joined television station WXEL in the middle of 1950 as an announcer, Alan Freed moved to Cleveland, which at 39 miles from Akron was within the range of the still in force non-compete clause.
16.
Alan Freed was then hired by WJW radio for a midnight program sponsored by Main Line, the RCA Distributor, and Record Rendezvous.
17.
On July 11,1951, Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues records on WJW.
18.
Alan Freed called his show "The Moondog House" and billed himself as "The King of the Moondoggers".
19.
Alan Freed had been inspired by an instrumental piece called "Moondog Symphony" that had been recorded by New York-based composer and street musician Louis T Hardin, known professionally as Moondog.
20.
Alan Freed addressed his listeners as if they were all part of a make-believe kingdom of hipsters, united in their love for black music.
21.
Alan Freed began popularizing the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music he played.
22.
Later that year, Alan Freed promoted dances and concerts featuring the music he was playing on the radio.
23.
Alan Freed was one of the organizers of a five-act show called "The Moondog Coronation Ball" on March 21,1952, at the Cleveland Arena.
24.
In July 1954, following his success on the air in Cleveland, Alan Freed moved to WINS in New York City.
25.
Alan Freed left the station in May 1958 "after a riot at a dance in Boston featuring Jerry Lee Lewis".
26.
Alan Freed worked at WABC starting in May 1958 but was fired from that station on November 21,1959, after refusing to sign a statement for the FCC that he had never accepted payola bribes.
27.
Alan Freed subsequently arrived at a small Los Angeles station, KDAY and worked there for about one year.
28.
Alan Freed appeared in a number of pioneering rock and roll motion pictures during this period.
29.
Alan Freed appeared in several motion pictures that presented many of the big musical acts of his day, including:.
30.
Alan Freed was given a weekly primetime TV series, The Big Beat, which premiered on ABC on July 12,1957.
31.
Alan Freed's career was significantly affected when it was shown that he had accepted payola, a practice that was highly controversial at the time.
32.
Alan Freed initially denied taking payola but later admitted to his fans that he had accepted bribes.
33.
Alan Freed refused to sign a statement for the FCC while working at WABC to state that he never received bribes.
34.
In December 1962, after being charged on multiple counts of commercial bribery, Alan Freed pled guilty to two counts of commercial bribery and was fined three hundred dollars and given a suspended sentence.
35.
In 1964 Alan 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.
36.
In 1962, after KDAY refused to allow him to promote "rock and roll" stage shows, Alan Freed moved to WQAM in Miami, Florida, arriving in August 1962.
37.
Alan Freed was initially interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
38.
The film starred Tim McIntire as Alan Freed and included cameo appearances by Chuck Berry, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Frankie Ford and Jerry Lee Lewis, performing in the recording studio and concert sequences.
39.
On January 23,1986, Alan Freed was part of the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
40.
On December 10,1991, Alan Freed was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
41.
The VH1 series Behind The Music produced an episode on Alan Freed featuring Roger Steffens.
42.
In 1998, The Official Website of Alan Freed went online with the jumpstart from Brian Levant and Michael Ochs archives as well as a home page biography written by Ben Fong-Torres.
43.
On February 26,2002, Alan Freed was honored at the Grammy Awards with the Trustees Award.
44.
Alan Freed was the subject of a 1999 television movie, Mr Rock 'n' Roll: The Alan Freed Story, starring Judd Nelson and directed by Andy Wolk.
45.
The organization's Web page states that "despite his personal tragedies, Alan Freed's innovations helped make rock and roll and the Top-40 format permanent fixtures of radio".
46.
Alan Freed has secured a place in American music history as the first important rock 'n' roll disc jockey.