Entry · catalog no. 7107
dusties
/ /ˈdʌstiz/ /DUS-teez
noun (plural) · Chicago, Illinois · 1960s
✓ Verified
1.
Classic soul and R&B records from back in the day — the oldies, named for the dust that settles in the grooves. A dusties set is a Chicago institution, on the radio and at the steppers set.
“Sunday the station plays nothing but dusties and the grown folks take the floor.”
Origin & Attribution
Black Chicago radio. DJ Herb Kent — the Cool Gent — coined dusty records at WBEE in the late 1950s and rode the word at WVON, where his Dusty Record Time was on the air by 1965. Richard Pegue and generations of Chicago jocks kept it spinning; steppers culture keeps it current.
1950s
Herb Kent coins dusty records at WBEE
1965
Dusty Record Time airs on Kent's WVON show
1990s
Dusties radio and steppers sets keep the word current across Black Chicago
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The Midwest
Chicago, Illinois · 1960s
Spoken by
Black Chicago radio and steppers culture
$DUSTIEThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady61 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
40/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1965
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@chitown
Chicago, IL
@detlex
Detroit, MI
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Herb Kent with David Smallwood, The Cool Gent: The Nine Lives of Radio Legend Herb Kent
2009
■
+ Cite a sourceInside Radio, Legendary Chicago DJ Herb Kent Dies at 88
2016
See also