Despite delivering just two shows a day and suffering numerous technical glitches the boss of the Island's newest TV channel intends to plough on.

Fresh TV began broadcasting 10 days ago but viewers have sometimes been left in silence and have even suffered blank screens.

But Fresh Creations president Elmore Warren said the channel was winning public support despite the problems.

He said: “When it came to the morning show it was pretty nasty and pretty late.

“Then a gremlin would sneak in and give us a whammy but we still work through it.”

At one stage on Friday the sound went off and then the entire screen went blank.

Then a message appeared apologising for the loss of sound but not for the loss of picture.

“Basically someone rearranged something we hadn't intended to,” said Mr. Warren.

Viewers have also had trouble hearing interviews and seeing faces on other occasions.

“That's the growing pains we are going through but we are getting up to speed. We are ramping up, we have had challenges in getting some things done,” said Mr. Warren.

“We have to make sure our equipment can handle what we have to do.”

He said new audio equipment was on order.

“Also we have a fresh team of people - we are training as we go.”

He said the Telecommunications Ministry had been supportive and understood the challenges Fresh TV was working through.

Mr. Warren said the morning show with Katy Brash and Rick Wynn had proved popular judging by viewer phone calls and other shows would follow in the next couple of weeks.

And he said youth programme ‘Jungle Boogie' was also building a strong following with a deluge of text message requests. “We have struck a chord.

“We have a captive audience right now. We are already beating out the foreign cable channels.”

Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb said:“I think clearly as in any start-up they have their challenges. I did see a marked improvement today.” The Minister said Fresh TVwere offering a different perspective on Bermuda which was definitely needed.

VSB chief executive officer Kenny DeFontes said his station was keeping an open mind on its newest competitor.

Asked if there were too many channels competing for the same advertising dollars he said it was the same situation with newspapers but they all survived.

He said VSB was looking to build a consolidated radio and TV site at an undisclosed location with updated equipment and more automation.

“We are hoping to start building some time this year. We intend to lead the market. We have to do things differently.”