A street party will help kick off Bermuda's latest television channel when it goes live on Friday.

Fresh TV will begin broadcasting on Friday at 6 p.m. while the public are invited to the Court Street HQ at 8.30 p.m. The airing, known as "jungle boogie" is set to run until 11 p.m.

US artist Kema will perform a piece by Bermudian Andrew Phillips while Jamaican guitarist Mel Bell-Grey will also perform.

However it will be local content the station, broadcast on Cable Channel Three, will eventually become known for.

Fresh Creations President Elmore Warren said plans include music videos, interactive game shows and community based programmes.

On Saturday the channel will air jazz and world music performed by local musicians starting at 7.30 p.m and going until 11 p.m. Sunday will see repeats.

The schedule starts in earnest at 7 a.m. next Tuesday with two hosts talking with guests and playing music on a show called BDAM.

At 9 a.m. music videos will be played. These will be mostly overseas artists but the idea is to play more locals as recordings are built up.

At 11 a.m. BDAM is repeated and more music will be played.

At 3 p.m. Julie Matthews anchors `Up Close and Political', a half hour interview with politicians.

Also planned for afternoons is teenage show featuring music and games.

At 6.25 the station will air Fresh on Three - a half hour news slot.

Mr. Warren said: "We are the new kids on the block. We intend to put out quality, balanced news.

"We won't be the most aggressive people out there. It's more to give the positive side."

Describing the channel Mr. Warren said: "It's very interactive, very street, very community based. A lot of it will grow from there."

Fresh TV has no overseas partner. Mr. Warren said this would give it operational freedom. "Other channels are locked in. It's lazy T.V. It's the easy thing to do."

He said the concept had come to him in 1996 but it had been difficult to get financing.

"You can't get investment if you don't know it's going to happen. It was never a sure thing.

"We bartered quite a lot, it worked very well for us."