Radio listeners may not have recognized the voice of Erik Selby, but people in the business remember him as a talented programmer behind the scenes and one of the good guys in a tough business.

Mr. Selby, who was program director for news station KQV-AM, died suddenly on Monday after he collapsed at his Penn Township home from unknown causes. He was 43.

Born and reared in Pittsburgh, he joined KQV in 1992. Before that, he worked as a DJ at several local music stations, including the former WPLW-FM and WEZE-FM.

He and his wife, Susan E. Barr Selby, worked together at KQV, where she's the advertising traffic manager.

Colleagues remember Mr. Selby as a good-natured and calming force at the station.

"He was a genuinely good human being," said KQV news director Frank Gottlieb. "He did the work behind the scenes that makes what we do possible."

He was known for his witty observations on radio and the world around him. "We would constantly joke with each other," recalled David Ballarotto, who worked at the station as a news anchor until 2007.

Working with an all-news format, Mr. Selby added other programming elements to the station that made it unique. He was a fan of old-time radio, and brought it to KQV's schedule on a nightly basis with "When Radio Was," a syndicated series of classic radio dramas, along with radio mysteries that appealed to fans of early radio.

In 2003, Mr. Selby was color commentator for the Pittsburgh Forge minor league ice hockey team's online broadcasts.

"He loved the business of radio," said Mr. Ballarotto, who's now in sales with CBS Radio/Pittsburgh. "He left his mark on the station with the programming decisions he made."

In recent years, Mr. Selby reinvented himself as a farmer. In 2007, he and his wife purchased farm land and launched Meadow Rock Farm and Gardens, a family operated organic farm in Butler.

He was devoted to his new project, and loved to talk about the farm, his cats and other animals and the adventure he and his wife had embarked on.

"As he and Sue said to me when I decided to go to B94, life is all about taking chances," Mr. Ballarotto said. "They took a major chance in life when they decided to fulfill a lifelong dream and purchase a farm. It was a giant risk, but one they never regretted."

He was a member of the Herbal Thymes Club, the Pennsylvania Sustainable Agriculture Association and the Butler Tourism Agriculture Program.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his mother, Ida Parsons of Penn Hills.

Visitation is from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. today at McDonald-Aeberli Funeral Home, 238 Crowe Ave., Mars. A memorial service for friends at family will be held May 9 at 3 p.m. at the farm.

Memorial contributions can be made to the Building Fund for Greenlife, c/o Meadow Rock Farm and Gardens, 899 Rockdale Road, Butler, PA 16002.