1 in the ratings, as Imus peppered the airwaves with a seemingly drunken flurry of sexually and politically provocative material. The first started in 1970 at WGAR-AM/1220 and lasted barely a year. One of the nation's original – and most notorious – shock jocks, Imus had two memorable stints in Cleveland. They were moved to Lake View Cemetery in 2016.
His ashes were brought back to Cleveland in 2002, where they were on display in an urn until 2014. He was trying to revive his career on the West Coast when he died, at age 43, in 1965. He got caught up in the payola scandals of the early 1960s, and left New York. He was featured in several early rock 'n' roll movies and put together concerts that toured the nation.
Freed left Cleveland for New York in 1954, where he became a national figure, hosting a nationally syndicated radio show and a weekly TV program on ABC. He presided over what many consider the first-ever rock concert, the Moondog Coronation Ball, held March 21, 1952, at the old Cleveland Arena. The R and B records he played were a hit with black and white listeners alike, and Freed dubbed himself "The King of the Moondoggers." The flamboyant Freed was a showman who would growl, howl and pound phone books like drums when he was on the air. He jumped to WJW in Cleveland in 1951, where his late-night program, "The Moondog House," became a phenomenon. He started his radio career at WAKR in Akron in 1945, playing jazz, pop and early rhythm and blues. Contrary to popular opinion, Freed did not coin the phrase "rock'n' roll," but he was certainly instrumental in popularizing it and spreading the revolution around the world. The most famous radio personality in Cleveland history, and a pioneer of early rock 'n' roll.