In 1951 disc jockey Alan Freed got a job playing classical music on Cleveland,
Ohio radio station WJW. Freed soon met Leo Mintz, the owner of the Record Rendezvous, one of Cleveland’s largest record stores, who proposed buying
airtime on the station to be devoted entirely to R&B recordings, with Freed
as host. On July 11, 1951, Freed started playing rhythm and blues records
on WJW. Freed called his show “The Moondog House” and billed himself as
“The King of the Moondoggers”. He had been inspired by a instrumental
called “Moondog Symphony” that had been recorded by New York street
musician Louis T. Hardin, aka “Moondog”. Freed adopted the record as his
show’s theme music.