Editing Alan Freed (section)

===Legal trouble, payola scandal===

In 1958, Freed faced controversy in Boston when he told the audience, "It looks like the Boston police don't want you to have a good time."  As a result, Freed was arrested and charged with inciting to riot, and was fired from his job at WINS.<ref>Guralnick, p. 235.</ref>

Freed's career was significantly affected when it was shown that he had accepted [[payola]] (payments from record companies to play specific records), a practice that was highly controversial at the time. He initially denied taking payola<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/11/22/archives/alan-freed-is-out-in-payola-study-disk-jockey-refuses-to-sign-wabc.html |title=ALAN FREED IS OUT IN 'PAYOLA' STUDY; Disk Jockey Refuses to Sign WABC Denial on Principle – Says He Took No Bribes |date=November 22, 1959 |work=New York Times |access-date=February 4, 2021}}</ref> but later admitted to his fans that he had accepted bribes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Alan_Freed |title=Alan Freed |date=March 17, 1964 |work=Ohio Central History |access-date=February 4, 2021}}</ref> Freed refused to sign a statement for the FCC while working at [[WABC (AM)]] to state that he never received bribes.<ref name="auto4"/> That led to his termination.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dailynews.com/2019/12/23/radio-how-a-disgraced-dj-made-his-way-to-southern-california-airwaves/ |title=Radio: How a disgraced DJ made his way to KDAY |date=December 23, 2019 |work=LA Daily News |access-date=February 4, 2021}}</ref><ref name="auto3"/>

In 1960, payola was made illegal. In December 1962, after being charged on multiple counts of [[commercial bribery]], Freed pleaded guilty to two counts of commercial bribery and was fined three hundred dollars and given a suspended sentence.<ref name="auto">{{cite web |url=http://www.rockabillyhall.com/AlanFreed1.html#:~:text=Freed%20was%20eventually%20charged%20with,as%20a%20DJ%20was%20over. |title=Alan Freed |date=June 10, 2016 |work=Rockabilly Hall of Fame |access-date=February 3, 2021 |archive-date=June 15, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170615090525/http://www.rockabillyhall.com/alanfreed1.html#:~:text=Freed%20was%20eventually%20charged%20with,as%20a%20DJ%20was%20over. |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.historyandheadlines.com/november-21-1959-alan-freed-originator-term-rock-roll-fired/ |title=November 21, 1959: Alan Freed, Originator of the Term "Rock and Roll" is Fired from His Job as a DJ! |date=November 21, 2014 |work=History and Headline |access-date=February 4, 2021}}</ref>

There was also a series of [[conflict of interest]] allegations, that he had taken songwriting co-credits that he did not deserve.<ref name="auto2"/> The most notable example was [[Chuck Berry]]'s "[[Maybellene]]". Taking partial credit allowed him to receive part of a song's royalties, which he could help increase by heavily promoting the record on his own program. Berry was eventually able to regain the writing credit. 

[[The Flamingos]] also claimed that Freed had wrongly taken writing credit for some of their songs. In another example, however, Harvey Fuqua of [[The Moonglows]] insisted Freed's name was not merely a credit on the song "[[Sincerely (song)|Sincerely]]" and that he did actually co-write it, although other band members disagreed. <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/14/arts/the-man-who-knew-it-wasn-t-only-rock-n-roll.html |title=Alan Freed |date=October 14, 1999 |work=New York Times |access-date=February 4, 2021 |quote=Mr. Jackson, who wrote the Freed biography, said that two members of the virtuoso group the Moonglows told him that Mr. Freed had no involvement with their big hit ''Sincerely'' yet took a writing credit for it and received the royalties. Maybellene .... Mr. Berry went to court eventually and succeeded in having Mr. Freed's name removed as co-writer.}}</ref>

In 1964 Freed was indicted by a federal grand jury for [[tax evasion]] and ordered to pay $37,920 in taxes on income he had allegedly not reported. Most of that income was said to be from payola sources.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/03/17/archives/freed-exdisk-jockey-indicted-in-37920-us-tax-evasion-failure-to.html |title=Alan Freed |date=March 17, 1964 |work=New York Times |access-date=February 3, 2021}}</ref>