EUGENE, OR (CelebrityAccess) – Dusty Street, the radio disc jockey (DJ) perhaps best known for her time at Los Angeles’ KROQ-FM, passed away Saturday (October 21) in Eugene, OR. SiriusXM Deep Tracks confirmed her death in a Facebook (FB) post. Street finished her radio career at the satellite radio station. A cause of death has not been revealed. She was 77.
“The SiriusXM FB post says, “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. Dusty was one of the first female rock jocks on the West Coast …We are heartbroken.” The post concludes with Street’s signature radio signoff, “Fly low, dear friend and avoid the radar.”
Street was one of Country’s first female FM DJs and worked at KSAN, KMPX and KTIM before landing at KROQ in the late 70s. She remained at KROQ until 1980, when she had small stints across town at KLOS and KWST. She returned to KROQ only two years later and remained until 1989, where she was a welcomed nighttime voice at the station.
While at KROQ, Street was known for breaking new music on the air as the station was one of the first in the country to play artists like Depeche Mode, Duran Duran and many others.
Street eventually relocated to Las Vegas and then went to Cleveland, where she did her SiriusXM show on the Deep Tracks channel for nearly two decades. She settled down in Oregon in 2022 as her health declined.
Street was featured in the 2023 MGM+ documentary San Francisco Sounds: A Place In Time and was inducted into the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame this year.
Many former colleagues and friends took to social media in tribute.
Chris Cohen of BandstoFans.Substack.com writes of Street, “Her love and knowledge of music was amazing… and eclectic. That’s why she was considered a friend by artists as diverse as Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead, Billy Idol and Dr. John,” the post read.
Geno Michellini, a KLOS DJ, shared news of Street’s death on FB after spending the last two days at her side in Eugene. “She died peacefully, quietly and surrounded by love in a beautifully serene location overlooking the most beautiful lake you could ever want,” he wrote. “There will never be another Dusty Street. The queen is gone, but she’ll never be forgotten.”
