Dusty Street dies: Outspoken rock DJ for SiriusXM, KROQ was 77

Dusty Francesstraat, one of the West Coast’s first female disc jockeys, died Saturday in Eugene, Oregon. She was 77.

She was most recently the host of SiriusXM Deep Tracks, but is best known for her time at KROQ-FM, known as K-Rock. The station became a driving force in punk and new wave music in the late 1970s to early 1980s.

“We lost one ourselves. Dusty Street is dead after 77 joyous trips around the sun. And yes, Dusty Street was her real name,” SiriusXM Deep Tracks, Street’s most recent employer, said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

“Dusty was one of the first female rock jocks on the West Coast, working at KMPX and KSAN in San Francisco from 1967 to 1978 before moving to Los Angeles, where she held court at night at KROQ from 1979 to 1996.”. .. We are sad, fly low, dear friend, and avoid the radar.”

After spending 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 KROQ’s evening show from 1981 to 1989.

Street left KROQ in 1989, claiming she was a “renegade” due to the increasingly strict programming regulations demanded. She was also a fierce opponent of the Parents Music Resource Centre, which was then trying to introduce a rating system for recorded music.

She landed in Cleveland’s Rock Hall of Fame and joined newcomer SIriusXM in its fifth-floor studios.

Veteran KLOS DJ Geno Michellini posted about Street’s death on Facebook.

“I was in Eugene the last two days, at the bed of Dusty Street. The many ailments that she had fought so hard for the last few years had finally caught up with her. “I am writing with a broken heart to say that Dusty has left us tonight,” Michellini wrote. “She died peacefully, quietly and surrounded by love in a wonderfully peaceful place overlooking the most beautiful lake one could wish for.” As befits a queen, 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 more. There will never be another Dust Street. The queen is gone, but we will never forget her.”

No memorial plans have been announced.