Origins of rock and roll "Rock and Roll" Harris. These songs were generally classed as "race music" or, from the late 1940s, "rhythm and blues", and were barely known by mainstream white audiences. However, in 1951, Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed began broadcasting rhythm, blues, and country music for a multi-racial audience. Freed, familiar with the music of earlier decades, used the phrase rock and roll to describe the music he aired over station WJW (850 AM); its use also is credited to Freed's sponsor, record store owner Leo Mintz, who encouraged Freed to play the music on the radio. Originally Freed used the name
Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n Roll Trio (#8001). A few years previously, there had also been an unauthorized reissue of the album which featured an exact reproduction of the cover and label, although differences in label and cover formatting noted by collectors reveal it as a reprint. In 1993, it was released on compact disc by Aris Records (MCD 30489). 1998's "Go Cat Go!: Rockabilly Music and Its Makers" characterizes the CD reissue as "legendary and essential." When the Memphis-based Rock and Roll Trio relocated to New York in the hopes of finding the fame that had eluded them in their native South, they signed with Coral