At New York City's Paramount Theatre, noted disc jockey Alan Freed hosts a summer roll and roll stage show. After being harassed backstage by struggling songwriters Al Fisher and Lou Marks, teenage heartthrob Teddy Randazzo is asked by Freed to give an interview to novice reporter Carole Hendricks. The two go to a nearby diner, and Teddy tells Carole how he was born in New York but moved to Cleveland, where he was discovered by Freed while working as a hotel bellhop. Meanwhile, Freed does his radio show on WINS 101, playing rock and roll music by such notables as Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Clyde McPhatter, The Moonglows and Chuck Berry. Later, at World magazine, Carole is told by her editor, Joe Prentiss, that he sees rock and roll music as an attack on American moral values and expects her to report as such in her article. When she refuses, Prentiss writes a blistering diatribe on the musical genre, calling it music by and for juvenile delinquents. Later, Carole meets Teddy backstage at the Paramount and tries to apologize to him for her boss's story, but, feeling betrayed, he rebuffs her. Teddy is then visited by his old friend, former boxing champion Rocky Graziano, who asks for the singer's advice on romance, but Teddy warns him that he would be of little help. After seeing the heartbroken Teddy, Freed goes on his radio show and attacks Prentiss, arguing that rather than being a profiteer, as depicted by Prentiss, he was merely one of the discoverers of the new musical genre, having witnessed teenagers like Teddy listening to rhythm and blues recordings in a Cleveland record store. He then began hosting a local radio program dedicated to such music, re-christening it "rock and roll." Finally, Freed contends that rock and roll music is simply the expression of teenagers, and its great success is a credit to them, not him. He then calls upon his listeners to contribute to Prentiss' favorite charity, the heart fund, to prove that "rock and rollers" are not the delinquents that the editor depicts them to be. Freed's charity drive is a great success, raising thousands of dollars, including a $500 donation by the repentant Prentiss, and Teddy and Carole are reunited.