Dusty Frances Street, one of the first female disc jockeys on the West Coast, died Saturday in Eugene, Ore. She was 77.
She was most recently the host of SiriusXM Deep Tracks, but is best known for her time working at KROQ-FM, known as K-Rock. The station became a force in punk and new wave music in the late ’70s into the 1980s.
“We have lost one of our own. Dusty Street has passed away after 77 joyous trips around the sun. And yes, Dusty Street was her real name,” SiriusXM Deep Tracks, Street’s most recent employer, shared Sunday in a Facebook post.
“Dusty was one of the first female rock jocks on the West Coast, working at KMPX and KSAN in San Francisco from 1967 through 1978 before heading to Los Angeles, where she held court in the evenings from 1979 through 1996 on KROQ. … We are heartbroken, Fly Low Dear Friend and Avoid the Radar.”
After some time at smaller stations, Street joined KROQ in 1978. She briefly left KROQ in 1980 and spent time at local rock stations KLOS and KWST, before returning to anchor KROQ’s evening programming from 1981 to 1989.
Street departed KROQ in 1989, claiming that she was a “renegade” to the increasingly tightened programming demanded. She also was a vehement opponent of the Parents Music Resoure Center, which was then attempting to impose a ratings system on music recordings.
She landed on her feet in Cleveland at the Rock Hall of Fame, joining upstart SIriusXM on its fifth floor studios.
Veteran KLOS DJ Geno Michellini posted on Facebook regarding Street’s death.
“I have been in Eugene the last two days at Dusty Street’s bedside. The numerous afflictions that she has been so indomitably fighting these last years finally caught up to her. I am writing with a broken heart to say that Dusty left us tonight,” Michellini wrote. “She died peacefully, quietly and surrounded by love in a beautifully serene location overlooking the most beautiful lake you could ever want. As befitting the queen that she was.
“Tonight I lost one of the best friends I ever had and the world lost a radio and music legend … She was all that and so much more. There will never be another Dusty Street. The queen is gone, but she’ll never be forgotten.”
No memorial plans have been revealed.