Peace Talk at ‘Crossroads’

George Sarabia, 28, is talking about war and peace. Having spent much of his life as a gangbanger, he now works in the “peace movement,” trying to get gang members to lay down arms. As media youth programs coordinator of the grass-roots organization Inner City Struggle, he was a featured guest last month on KKBT-FM’s (92.3) new bimonthly program, “Crossroads,” a talk show focusing on gang intervention and violence prevention.

Hosted by weeknight deejay Julio G (for Gonzalez), “Crossroads” airs on the first and third Mondays of the month, from 10 p.m. to midnight.

Once Sarabia was known as “Payaso,” or Clown, of the East L.A. gang Big Hazard--at times Julio addressed him that way--but what Sarabia had to say was anything but funny:

“Back in ’92 [after] I was shot, I started realizing something was not right. If I’m willing to die for war, why can’t I die for peace? Then the experience of losing a brother [who was 17, to gang warfare] . . . the way I would see my mom cry [at] 5, 6 in the morning . . . I just felt I had to give back. . . . Like for me to just be alive, God handed me a new life to say, ‘Here, Georgie. Are you going to waste it again, or are you going to do something with it?’ ”

For KKBT--an urban music station with a younger-skewing demographic that’s 38% African American, 31% Latino and 31% “other,” and which goes by the slogan, “Unity Through Music and No Color Lines”--the “Crossroads” message resonates.

On the debut show May 18, Bo Taylor, president of Unity One, an African American peace group, and Victor Perez, spokesman for No Guns, a Latino group, appeared together. “They talked about black and brown unity,” Julio said. “They hooked up on the street and now are sharing the same office.”

“Crossroads”--which has call-ins like any other talk show and occasional music that fits the anti-violence theme--is the brainchild of KKBT program director Michelle Santosuosso and community action director Dominique DiPrima, the show’s producer. They began talking about it in December after Santosuosso came to the station.

Since 1995, KKBT had been airing “Street Soldiers,” a syndicated show from sister station KMEL in San Francisco with a similar approach. But they felt they needed a local showcase. So they began working with some 20 neighborhood organizations to craft a program that would speak to the Southland’s diverse communities.

“L.A.--this is the gang center of the world,” says DiPrima, host of KKBT’s Sunday morning public-affairs show, “Street Science,” “and if you’re going to deal with violence prevention issues, you really have to tap into the neighborhood peace movements and peace activism coming from active and inactive gang members, who are trying to stop the killing. I don’t believe that another show with city officials talking about what young people should do is going to have an impact.”

KKBT deliberately didn’t publicize “Crossroads” until now because the station wanted Julio, whose music show runs from 6-10 p.m. weeknights, to get comfortable in a talk format. Now the station is preparing on-air promos to launch the July 20 show, featuring Blinky Rodriguez of Pacoima-based Valley Unity Peace Treaty.

Julio, 29, was chosen to host because of his own street experience and his reputation as a producer of rap music, DiPrima notes.

“I’m from L.A., from Lynwood, and I kind of have been involved in a gang,” Julio says off air. “I knew a little bit about [gangs], worked with a lot of gang organizations at the Beat, and a lot of them felt comfortable with me.”

He reveals that he never officially got out of the gang, but “I just gradually started my music thing and the homies kind of let you out.”

After graduating from South Gate High School, he joined the old rap station KDAY-AM in 1987 as a mixer. Then, after producing the music of performers such as Kid Frost, Mellow Man Ace, Gerardo and Eric Wright, or Eazy-E, he landed on the Beat in the summer of 1994 as the deejay of “The Ruthless Radio Show,” hosted by Wright on Saturday nights.

After Wright’s death from AIDS in 1995, Julio and partner Tony G co-hosted the renamed “The MixMaster Show.” He got his own show a year later.

Even though Julio’s gang dissolved--”everybody went to jail and whatever”--and by his early teens he was wrapped up in music, Julio won’t say its name out loud. “You can’t be naming [it] because that can be dangerous for my health. What if somebody’s little friend got killed [by] that gang?”

And that potential fallout is reason enough for “Crossroads.”

Opera Live!: KKGO-FM (105.1) broadcasts its first live production of a full-length opera since the station went all-classical in 1989. Its debut offering is Mozart’s “The Abduction From the Seraglio,” airing Friday at 8 p.m. from the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre.

The opera, to be sung in German with English narration, will be performed by artists associated with the Los Angeles Opera; the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra will be conducted by music director Lucinda Carver. KKGO morning announcer Rich Capparela will narrate the three-hour broadcast, and afternoon host John Santana will host the program.

This may not be just a one-time event. KKGO President and General Manager Saul Levine said, “We are looking forward to doing a whole series with Los Angeles Opera. It’s all evolving.”

Olney, Too: KCRW-FM (89.9) continues its special series of live remote broadcasts of “Which Way, L.A.? On Location.” Host Warren Olney will be at Skirball Center in Brentwood on Friday at 1 p.m., discussing the effect of immigration, race and religion on intermarriage. Admission is free but reservations are required. (310) 450-5183. Next Thursday the multi-award-winning host receives the Mayor’s Award from the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission for his contributions to race and human relations.

1-888-Bye-Bye: Bill Handel’s 2-year-old enterprise, 1-888-Refer Law Inc., has gone under. The KFI-AM (640) morning show host, who regularly pitched the legal referral service on the air, said that the operation “was just costing more money to run than it brought in.”

In the bankruptcy filing, assets were listed at $4,740 and debts at $56,774. “Most of the money owed was to me and my partner,” he explained. “We basically loaned money to the corporation.”

Is Handel embarrassed? “Yeah, I think to an extent. Any business that goes under, it’s an embarrassment,” he said this week. “I’ve had some successful businesses and businesses that haven’t succeeded. I’m not thrilled.”