Dusty Street, one of the first female disc jockeys on the West Coast who is best known for her time working at Los Angeles-based alternative rock station KROQ-FM and later at SiriusXM, has died. Street passed away in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday, Oct. 21, her friend, Geno Michellini, shared on Facebook. She was 77.
Although Street’s cause of death was not disclosed, Michellini wrote in his Saturday post, “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.” He went on to share, “I am writing with a broken heart to say that Dusty left us tonight. She died peacefully, quietly and surrounded by love in a beautifully serene location overlooking the most beautiful lake you could ever want.” He continued, “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.”
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Street’s career in the radio business spanned decades and began in San Francisco in the late 1960s when she worked at KMPX, KTIM and KSAN as one of the country’s first female FM DJs, per the Los Angeles Times. After moving to Los Angeles, Street joined KROQ in 1978, briefly leaving in 1980 to spend time at local rock stations KLOS and KWST, before returning to anchor KROQ’s evening programming from 1981 to 1989. She left KROQ in 1989, stating that she was let go for being a “renegade” as the station began implementing “tighter and tighter” control over the programming. She eventually went on to work in Cleveland out of the fifth floor at the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame as a DJ for SiriusXM. She most recently worked on the Deep Tracks station.
“We have lost one of our own,” SiriuxXM posted on Facebook. “Dusty Street has passed away after 77 joyous trips around the sun. And yes, Dusty Street was her real name. 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.”
Street was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame in 2015. According to The Hollywood Reporter, earlier this year, she took part in the Epix documentary San Francisco Sounds: A Place In Time, which spotlighted recording artists from the Bay Area that were popular in the late ’60s through the late ’70s. No memorial plans have been revealed.
