Alan Freed was the pioneer disc jockey, who, many credit with giving rock and roll, and several of it's early African American performers the first big push. He began his very successful career in the early fifties, in and around Northeast Ohio..At Youngstown, Akron, Cleveland, Ohio stations. Later he moved on to New York City. In the middle and final fifties, he appeared, as himself, in several rock and roll films, along with several up and coming rockers of the day...eventually, he would get badly snaggled in the payola scandals of the early sixties..subsequently, he would plead guilty to a couple of bribery charges and receive a fine and suspended sentence. Although not severely punished, Freed's reputation was tarnished enough that no prominent radio station would hire him. He left New York for the west coast, able to get only day jobs on small stations, and was never allowed to promote rock and roll shows, again. Later relocated to Miami where alcoholism and liver cirrhosis claimed his life in 1965, at the young age of 43. Twenty-one years later, in 1986, Freed would become part of the first group of inductees into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the city where DJ fame first began, Cleveland, Ohio.