Former WAAF radio personality 'Ozone' dies unexpectedly in New Orleans

A popular radio personality and music director credited for helping bring originally Worcester-based WAAF-FM to the forefront of New England rock radio stations in the ‘90s has gone silent.

Rebecca Pratt, 55 ‒ known while in Massachusetts as John Osterlind, with the on-air moniker "Ozone" ‒ died unexpectedly in New Orleans Dec. 29.

Pratt, a transgender woman, was the midday disc jockey and music director at WAAF for most of the ‘90s.

Pratt lived in Louisiana in recent years, hired in 2008 by WRNO-FM, a conservative talk station, according to nola.com, a news website.

Authorities have not determined a cause of death. Pratt was found by building managers in an apartment, according to the website.

The New Orleans Police Department has listed the death as “unclassified” pending an autopsy by the coroner.

Former radio colleagues from her WAAF days were shocked by the news of Pratt's death.

Kevin Barbare, who was a cohost of the WAAF’s popular “The Hill-Man Morning Show” in the 1990s, said Ozone was “super welcoming” when Barbare first came to the station. The two stayed friends over the years.

“When I first moved here, our station (WAAF) was known but it was on its way to greatness. And Ozone was a big part of it,” Barbare said.

Barbare said Ozone was a big music fan and loved the listening audience.

“Back then, WAAF was not only playing classic rock but the stuff a lot of stations weren’t playing yet, a lot of the alternative artists, like the Pearl Jams and the Nirvanas and all the things that became huge later on,” Barbare said. “But before that, John was already into Metallica and all the things that were making WAAF a great rock station.”

A perfect fit

Born in Norwalk, Connecticut, Pratt started in radio broadcasting overnights on WWRX-FM in Providence from 1987 to 1988. This was followed by evenings and afternoons on WCCC-FM in Hartford from 1989 to 1992 and evenings on WAAF in Westborough (and later Boston) from 1992 to 1994.

From 1994 to 2001, Pratt from was the midday disc jockey (from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) and music director for WAAF.

Mike Hsu, the morning host of The Pike 100 FM, remembers listening to Ozone in the car while driving to his interview at the WAAF headquarters in Westborough. Hsu got the job.

“I was thinking, 'Wow, this guy is hilarious,' ” said Hsu, who credits his former colleague as a key part in WAAF’s success in the 1990s into the 2000s, as well as being a perfect fit for the rock station.

Hsu shared his favorite story to prove his point.

“Stone Temple Pilots in 2000 came in the studio to play on the show, (singer) Scott Weiland and (guitarist) Dean DeLeo, and Scott Weiland was fresh out of jail,” Hsu recalls. “STP’s manager tells John, ‘Listen, don’t ask Scott anything about jail. Don’t ask Scott anything about drugs. OK? He doesn’t want to talk about that. That’s off limits.’ And John’s like, ‘Yeah, no problem.’ So they come in. They set up. Everything’s friendly. They turn the mic on. John looks right at Scott and the first thing he asks, ‘So is jail a good place to kick drugs?’ ”

Departing rock radio, and returning

Mistress Carrie, who is the afternoon disc jockey on The Pike, got her start on WAAF.

“(Ozone) totally understood the Northeast and understood the passion and, most importantly, he understood the audience. And the audience loved him for it,” Carrie said.

Since news of the death broke, Carrie said, she has been bombarded with calls from record company executives, past and present, lamenting the loss and praising the musical legacy their friend left behind.

After nearly a decade-long stint on WAAF, Pratt became the morning co-host on WRKO-AM in Boston with Peter Blute, the former congressman, from 2001 to 2003. When Blute left WRKO in the fall of 2005, he moved to WCRN-AM in Worcester.

During Blute’s time on the WCRN airwaves, his former cohost would pay the occasional on-air visit and the two would trade opinions and witticisms ‒ just like in their WRKO days.

Pratt had a successful run as evening host for WRNO-FM in New Orleans through 2015.

Pratt later returned to rock radio, as the host of a morning drive-time show on WKBU Bayou 95.7 FM in New Orleans.

Pratt was no longer on the air, according to www.nola.com.

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This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Transgender former WAAF radio personality 'Ozone' dies in New Orleans