COPYRIGHT 2007 The Fresno Bee

Byline: Jim Steinberg

Jul. 6--Fresno disc jockey Jesus "Jesse" Sanchez immigrated with his family to California from Mexico with little, but he applied himself as his strict parents instructed.

Mr. Sanchez, a KBOS, FM 94.9, disc jockey known widely as "Jay Boogie," led an earnest life as a devoted son and brother, said his parents, Jesus Sanchez and Esther Sanchez Bravo, sister Lily Sanchez and brother Cesar Sanchez.

He was fatally injured by a car June 26 after he sat down on the road at Blackstone Avenue, east of Shaw Avenue, police said. He was 25. Investigators said the driver is being sought on suspicion of hit-and-run.

Mr. Sanchez was born in Puebla, Mexico, and came to California when he was 5.

He practiced speaking unaccented Spanish and English as his parents instructed. He entered Fresno Unified School District's gifted-and-talented program and delivered newspapers by bicycle. When someone stole his bike, he woke up hours early to deliver on foot.

When he was older, he delivered pizza while attending Edison High School.

Mr. Sanchez began making his own films as a boy. Lily Sanchez remembered his at-home epic, "Lion King 1.5," with his dog Q playing the role of Simba.

Mr. Sanchez attended Fresno City College, then earned his bachelor's degree in broadcasting communications from California State University, Fresno.

He loved animals, and participated at Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals events.

He had recently paid off his new Saturn Sky roadster, Jesus Sanchez said: "He loved life. He loved our goddaughter Tyra. She called him Nino."

Lily Sanchez called her brother "a kid at heart," who could leave home exhausted, yet sound vibrant on the air minutes later.

He had been fast, quick and athletic enough to play guard on Edison High School's varsity basketball team, but quit to assist a veterinarian.

Jesus Sanchez told his son to think hard before he did that. "But the animals need me, too," Jesus Sanchez told his father.

Cesar Sanchez remembered his brother giving up the veterinarian assistant's job because he couldn't stand seeing animals suffer or die.

While at KBOS, Mr. Sanchez would speak off the air with radio listeners when they were were feeling down.

"Jesse would bring them up, make them want to keep going," Lily Sanchez said. "He changed their lives, and influenced me. I'm now a vegetarian."

Speaking of his son's death, Jesus Sanchez said the family deals with "a difficult time, but I believe Jesse would not like to see us sad. We are a very, very loving family together. Anytime we have problems, we talk about them together."

The Sanchezes always will notice that Mr. Sanchez no longer is seated for meals around the family's long, rectangular dinner table, Lily Sanchez said, but religious faith sustains them:

"We truly believe that God wanted Jesse. Jesse was way past his mission. ... The way we see it, God gives him a spot in heaven."

The Sanchezes said they will deal with their grief, then thankfully answer many telephone and computer messages from his family, friends and fans.