If there's one city that can claim itself as the birthplace of Rock and Roll it's probably Memphis. Cleveland tries to claim that honor because it was the location of a radio station (WJW) that employed a DJ named Alan Freed. He was possibly the one who made up the name for that genre of music but he was definitely the first to make widespread use of it. He was also one of the first, if not the first, person to target white audiences with Rock and Roll.