Alan Freed

Cleveland earned its place on the rock & roll map in the early 1950s when Record Rendezvous owner Leo Mintz and WJW deejay Alan Freed mainstreamed the term “rock & roll” to describe the R&B music of the time. Also in the 1950s and 1960s, AM radio stations like WHK and WIXY were establishing Cleveland as a national “break-out” market by playing new records and artists first, like then-unknown rockers Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, and Buddy Holly.