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
The History of Rock and Roll current version of “The History of Rock ‘n’ Roll” can still be heard worldwide over rewoundradio.com and supernovaradio.co as of 2014, the year the series was honored as the world’s “Best Online Radio Program” at the New York Festivals International Radio Programming Awards. The Drake-Chenault and Gary Theroux Productions' "History of Rock 'n' Roll" programs are not to be confused with other productions with similar names, such as the ABC Rock Radio Network's "The Official History of Rock & Roll." Hosted by a team of disc jockeys including Tony Pigg, Meg Griffin, Jimmy Fink and Mike Harrison, it otherwise bore