Margie Rye, a popular Tucson radio personality from the 1980s-90s who fell in love with radio while watching her father launch an FM station in the familyβs Bisbee home, died on Thursday, Dec. 14. She was 54.
Her husband, Steve Clement, said the cause of death was complications of alcoholism.
Margie Wrye, who went by the name βMargie Ryeβ throughout her nearly 20 years on Tucson radio, was born on Jan. 12, 1963, in Huntsville, Alabama, where her father, William Wrye, was a NASA aerospace engineer.
The family moved to Bisbee in 1972 and William Wrye went to work at Fort Huachuca in neighboring Sierra Vista. At night, he built an FM radio station β first called KBAZ and later KZMK β in the familyβs basement.
βShe would hang out with him in the basement and watch him work on the radio at night,β recalled her husband. βShe wouldnβt leave his side. She was fascinated by it.β
Her father died in 1979 β a month before the station went live and a month before Rye, then 16, graduated from Bisbee High School, according to an autobiography she posted on a tribute page. Rye wrote in the post that she helped file a license extension with the FCC so her mother could sell the station.
Rye moved to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona and in 1982, her second year studying radio and TV, she took a job in telephone research at KWFM. She told Tucson Lifestyles magazine in 2015 that daytime DJ Bob Cooke was impressed with Ryeβs deep, smoky voice and helped her land a tryout with program director Jim Ray.
βThe next thing I know, Jim says, βHey Margie, you want a job on the air? Iβll give you a tryout.β It was Saturday, from 2-4 a.m.,β she recalled in that 2015 interview.
Months later, Cooke was shot and killed by a fan. Clement said the death was a seminal moment in Ryeβs life, prompting her to drop out of college and devote her life to radio.
Rye worked at several Tucson stations, including KWFM/KCEE, Cool 92.9, and KLPX, and became a celebrity back home in Bisbee. She is perhaps best known for her midday KLPX segment the βDaily Dinosaur,β in which she would play older records based on a single theme.
βThe βDaily Dinosaur,β that was her trademark, that was her show,β he husband recalled, adding that Ryeβs legacy also was in the relationships she developed with listeners.
βShe was always there to take a phone call, to play a request. Someone would be having a bad day and she would play a song that would make them feel better, and they would let her know that,β he said.
βI think it was her passion and her personality. You really push yourself harder when youβre a female in a mostly male-dominated business,β added Ryeβs former colleague Gina Brandt, who now owns her own advertising agency.
Brandt said Rye set herself apart from the competition by creating promotional events that celebrated the radio station and the community.
βShe really stood out in the market. Everybody knew who she was,β Brandt said.
βShe was really engaging when she was out and about. She was very outgoing on and off the air.β
βShe was so passionate about it,β said Linda Diana, who started working in radio sales for KLPX parent Lotus Communications in 1986; she is still with the company as a regional account manager.
Rye met her husband at Cool 92.9, where he worked in sales. When they started their family in late 1993, βWe made the choice together for her to stay home,β said Clement, who is now vice president of sales for Clear Channel Outdoor.
The couple had a second son four years later and Rye, who had tip-toed back into radio part-time, returned in the early 2000s when the boys were older. She worked for KLPX from 2003-09.
Clement said his wife spent her post-radio days refocusing on her lifelong love of photography.
In addition to her husband, Rye is survived by sons Will and Sam, both of Tucson.
Visitation will be from 1 to 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 5, at Bringβs Funeral Home, 6910 E. Broadway, where services will begin at 2 p.m. A reception will follow at Macayoβs Mexican Kitchen at 7040 E. Broadway.
