Dusty Street, a pioneering DJ who is best known for her time working at Los Angeles-based alternative rock station KROQ-FM and later at SiriuxXM, died Saturday in Eugene, Ore. She was 77.
Her friend Geno Michellini, who worked for many years at L.A.-based station KLOS-FM, shared the news on Facebook.
“I have been in Eugene the last two days at Dusty Street’s bedside,” Michellini posted Saturday. “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. 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.”
Street most recently worked at SiriusXM for more than 20 years as host of the shows Deep Tracks and Classic Vinyl.
“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 known for being outspoken, opposing the Parents Music Resource Center for attempting to apply a ratings system to rock music. She once said she was let go from KROQ for being a “renegade” as the station was implementing “tighter and tighter” control over the programming.
In 2015, she was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame. 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 between 1966 and 1976, including Santana, Sly and the Family Stone, Tower of Power, and the Doobie Brothers, Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin.
Street once commented that people often asked her if her name was real, and that people were surprised to hear it wasn’t a stage name.. “My father’s name was Emerson Street. We used to live on Emerson Street on Palo Alto, which was pretty funny. Emerson Street on Emerson Street,” she said.