LAST June, long-time television producer Elmore Warren was granted the lease of Cable Channel Three, free for one year. Initially scheduled to launch this past autumn, Fresh TV did not hit Bermuda's airwaves until May 23.

Mr. Warren, who turns 40 tomorrow and is well known for being the face of the popular Al and Chriff's Video Show, has a passion for providing quality, local programming to the island's viewing audience.

He said he hoped Fresh TV would be a vehicle for spreading positive vibes throughout Bermuda.

Mr. Warren sat down with reporter CARLA ZUILL and photographer TAMELL SIMONS this week and talked about his vision, his critics and his hopes that Fresh TV is around for years to come.z9>

Q: What have been some of your challenges operating Fresh TV?

A: In an environment where television stations are showing programming from all parts of the world, there's no real production being done here.

That's a big problem, so what you do is you have a real passion, but you have both an educated and uneducated workforce. You have a lot of people who have been educated but haven't had the opportunity to work at all . . . and end up in print for whatever reason and there is no industry.

For an island that has some of the most beautiful locations to shoot something, we don't have a film industry, or a television industry so there goes your experience.

So, having professionally teamed with a core group of internationals being very experienced in the field, then sourcing out some of the older people who worked in the field a few years ago . .. for the most part we have a young team from the young guy who people would consider a part of the young generation to a more mature woman like Lovette Fuentes who wanted to find her niche at home and has sacrificed a lot to do that.

That's the first and foremost. Technically, we've had our bugs that we've had to sort out. Those are the two things that don't go well together.

Q: How did you feel when the opportunity arose for Fresh Creations to operate this channel?

A: We created the opportunity. It didn't arise. We created it. It's never going to be looked at as an easy task, certain times you need to really think about actually walking away from some things, seeing how far you've already got or to see what you ultimately want to achieve.

If I was chasing money, I could have packed up and taken my BetaCam (camera) home and my edit suite and just became a one-man band like everybody else, off of great reputation, and made a fair amount of money and worked eight months out of the year based on my experience alone and intellectual property. But I think that wasn't my fulfilment and my calling. My calling was to take on a bigger picture and try to establish something more than for self, but for young people who are growing up in the island, those who want another outlet.

Some people have choices - you have a choice to not do what your calling is, be disobedient, be miserable and figure out what you're going to do or suffering the struggle of creating more than one's self benefits from.

Q: How many years have you provided local programming on the island?

A: We've provided local programming on the island since 1992. With Al and Chriff's (video show), I had people bawling me out. I remember going to a friend in one of the bars and telling him, 'I can't take this no more', but he said, 'Hey, let that be the last time. You know what people are like.' That was good advice. I always look back and tell that story. I only cried once. No more.

Q: What drew you into this industry?

A: The riots (of 1978). I can remember seeing it. I watched the riot grow and fester. I saw the first stone being thrown when the riots began. I was right there on Capitol Hill (Parliament Hill). I watched the first light get blown out . . . I saw my first gun, and I also saw the way the news covered it.

I remember seeing Rick Richardson out there ducking ball bearings and seeing the cameraman getting the shots and seeing them on TV had a real influence on me.

I said, 'Hey, that's kind of cool.' From there I took a tour up at the station (Bermuda Broadcasting Company) and started to see that it was a cool place. That's where my interest was drawn from as a whole.

Q: What would you say to those who say they are not happy with the content of Fresh TV? Some have even written letters to the editor expressing this.

A: I wish I would have seen some of them, but I don't have time to read the paper. Once you're in the public eye, you're always going to be open to criticism. I was in the public eye like that, but people didn't even know my name.

They'd probably heard about me, but didn't know me.

They still don't know me but the fact of the matter is . . . I just say, no matter what, whether you tune in today or you don't tune in tomorrow, I'm hoping that when you do tune in, you're going to be able to pull something valuable from it. Or if you don't, maybe your children are, or your neighbour is.

The fact is we are amongst some 100-odd channels, with cable's new digital system, so to think that we're going to get everybody and make everybody happy, is not realistic. To think that people want more, well, they can get more as we get better funded. When we get more sponsorship, we'll get better programming.

People really want to give of themselves to this venture . . . I got a phone call from a guy who wants to spill out to me about what's wrong with this and what's wrong with that. He said he was doing it as constructive criticism.

That's nice and all, but he hasn't walked in my studio and know what I'm up against. So whatever one's judgment is, is based on one's feeling what they can tell me. I'm pretty aggressive about that because my door's open, come down here. You want to make a difference, come and be a part of something.

I told him I could listen to people talk every day, but that's it. I nickel and dime that stuff and put it in a jar, but I haven't got rich yet. The jar's full though . . . it's one of those things. Criticism is fine. I'll always take the good and leave what I have to behind.

Q: What is the impact you hope Fresh TV will leave on the island?

A: I've already left a legacy because I've produced over 165 local TV episodes that are not news and have captured Bermudiana. Ten years of capturing the arts, the social scene, some political stuff, black, white, Portuguese. Name another programme that's done that.

So, I've already accomplished what I need to be happy. I can walk the street and people who are now 20 years old can stop me and say, 'I remember Al and Chriff's'. How many of us say, 'I remember the news?', and news is the most important stuff of the day.

That impact is the reason why I got into it when I could have gone back to school. I was accepted at a university to study to be a teacher, but I said I could reach more people through this medium and really make a difference in how they are thinking about this place and each other and I think we've successfully done that.

As they watched Al and Chriff's evolve, they'll watch this channel evolve. It's for Bermuda as a whole to try and embrace so that we can get rid of our phobias, tear down some walls, be open to the global way of thinking in order to progress.

Q: What is the mantra of Fresh TV?

A: Our mission is to be a positive influence to people everywhere. Whether people like the taste of it, it's like lemonade.

You could suck on a lemon before you make lemonade. The lemon is sour, you put sugar in it, it's no longer sour. It goes both ways, sometimes it's going to be sweet, sometimes it's going to be sour, but the lemon still gives you vitamin C.

It still has some goodness for you. At the end of the day, that's what we want to be. It's an anomaly in a place that's been full of a lot of negative thinking . . . haters, as the young people would say. That seems to be the thing.

We've received a lot of love from people for what we're doing, without even understanding the magnitude of what we've accomplished to this day.

So I give thanks to those people and those who show support. The words of encouragement are always good, criticism is good, I just take it all in stride.