Before Alan Freed, before Dick Clark, before the term “rock and roll” had entered the American vocabulary, George “Hound Dog” Lorenz was playing Black music on white radio in Buffalo, New York. He was not the most famous DJ of the 1950s — Freed would claim that title — but he may have been the most important, and his story is inseparable from the city that gave him his platform.
The Sound of the Hound
Born on January 14, 1926, Lorenz began broadcasting in Buffalo in the late 1940s, spinning R&B records at a time when most white radio stations would not touch them. His on-air persona — “The Hound,” with his signature phrase “the Hound is around” — was electrifying. He broadcast from Club Zanzibar, a predominantly African-American nightclub, bringing the sound of Black America directly into living rooms and car radios across the Eastern Seaboard via WKBW’s 50,000-watt signal.
Little Richard later credited Lorenz as one of the earliest white DJs to champion Black music nationally. Lorenz played Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Sam Cooke, Clyde McPhatter, and Chuck Berry when mainstream radio treated them as untouchable. He was not following a trend — he was creating one.
The Buffalo Concerts
Lorenz did not limit his impact to the airwaves. He promoted and hosted concerts at Buffalo’s War Memorial Auditorium that brought together audiences in ways that defied the era’s racial segregation. His shows featured Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Etta James, and Bill Haley and the Comets. These concerts integrated white and Black audiences in a city — and a country — where such mixing was still uncommon and often unwelcome.
The Freed Rivalry
In 1953, Lorenz moved to Cleveland to compete directly with Alan Freed, who had established himself as the self-proclaimed king of the emerging rock and roll movement. Lorenz held his own, but when Freed departed for New York City, Lorenz returned to Buffalo and WKBW, where he continued to build his legacy. The rivalry with Freed highlights an important truth: Buffalo’s contribution to rock and roll’s birth was every bit as significant as Cleveland’s, even if history has not always reflected that.
WBLK and Legacy
On December 11, 1964, Lorenz founded WBLK-FM, tired of working for others and determined to build a station that reflected his values. He continued broadcasting until his death in 1972. His influence rippled outward: he inspired figures like Wolfman Jack and helped establish the template for the rock and roll disc jockey. For Buffalo, Hound Dog Lorenz was the man who heard the future first and had the courage to put it on the air.