Thursday, September 8, 2005

New York City crowns a new King...

Alan Freed ushered in the era of "Rock and Roll" when he debuted on WINS on this date in 1954. While he was not the first to use the term nor the first to play it on the radio, he was the first to make "Rock and Roll" part of our vocabulary from this day on...

Within just a couple of months the music industry was advertising "Rock & Roll" records in trade publications and a new genre of music was now part of the landscape. Freed quickly became known as "The King of Rock & Roll", a title he wore proudly as he opened each show. His holiday stage shows at the Brooklyn and New York Paramount Theaters would become legendary as he presented first generation Rock & Roll acts like Little Richard, Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry to capacity crowds...

While Freed would only spend 5 years in New York, no disc jockey before or since shares his popularity. His New York City journey would take him from WINS to WABC and as all good things must end, so too did this when a payola scandal erupted in late 1959. By early 1960 Freed had left New York City...

More on Alan Freed in my commentary...

1664) The Dutch surrendered New Amsterdam to the British, who then renamed it New York...

1945) Bess Myerson of New York is the first Jewish contestant to be named "Miss America"...

1954) Alan Freed debuts in New York City at WINS (feature story)...

1965) A Variety ad runs for auditions for a new group called The Monkees. Applying (unsuccessfully) are Stephen Stills, Danny Hutton (future Three Dog Night member), composer Paul Williams and believe or not, future mass murderer Charles Manson...

1965) A's infielder Bert Campaneris becomes the first player in baseball to play all 9 positions in a game...

1966) "That Girl" starring Marlo Thomas premieres on ABC-TV...

1968) "Funny Girl" with Barbra Streisand premieres...

1974) President Ford grants an unconditional pardon to former President Nixon...

1974) At the top of the charts: "I Shot the Sheriff" by Eric Clapton...

1975) The Boston public schools order citywide busing...

1996) ER, Dennis Franz and Kathy Baker are the big winners at the 48th Emmy Awards...

1998) Mark McGwire hits his 62nd home run breaking Roger Maris' 37 year record of 61 (McGwire would wind up with 70)...

Happy Birthday to...

1922) Sid Caesar...

1940) Willie Tyler (age of sidekick Lester is unknown)...

1945) Jose Feliciano...

1971) David Arquette...

1971) Model/TV host Brooke Burke...

1979) Pink...

Commentary...

In addition to appearing on both local and network radio (he had a show on CBS), Alan Freed also hosted TV shows while he was in New York. In 1957 he hosted a network dance show on the ABC-TV network and the following year was the host of a local show on ABC's channel 7. After violence occurred following one of his stage shows in Boston, Freed was indicted for inciting to riot and although the charges were eventually dropped, he was fired from WINS in 1958. He was hired by WABC radio and also continued to host his TV show...

Two things come to mind about Alan Freed, I watched him rehearse his TV show having access by virtue of my first fulltime job in the ABC mailroom. I would watch the rehearsal from a second floor balcony which overlooked the studio. The balcony was only reachable through Mike Wallace's (yes that Mike Wallace) office. Wallace would often watch the rehearsals too. The second thing that comes to mind is the memo from WABC Radio that came out after Freed's hiring which stated that Alan Freed would no longer be referred to as "The King of Rock & Roll" and there were to be no references to "Rock & Roll" when referring to Alan Freed. That memo came out as word of an impending payola scandal was being investigated...

No need to go into the sordid details of that payola scandal, a dark day for radio but in November of 1959 Alan Freed was fired and would never appear again on New York radio. He would die a broken man in 1965...

(Thanks for your support)