Cleveland’s rock and roll history began in the 1950’s when a new genre of music was introduced to a mainstream audience by Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed.
On his WJW-AM radio show, Freed started to play the rhythmic and soulful songs that made the kids dance in the aisles at the local Record Rendezvous store, and with that, he popularized African American music called “rhythm and blues” to a new audience craving the urban vibe.
He coined it “rock and roll.”
Freed went on to organize the Moondog Coronation Ball featuring a lineup of R&B artists that drew an estimated 20,000 fans outside and inside the 11,000 seat Cleveland Arena on March 21,1952.