Stephen Colbert has announced the winner of The Colbert Report’s “Green Screen Challenge.” Colbert did a “Star Wars Kid”-inspired lightsaber dance in front of a green screen, and fans have been sending in their video mashups. Here’s the winning entry, “Freedom Fighter,” by “Bonnie R.” from California:
ALSO: Watch the announcement from The Colbert Report, along with a medley of other entries and an appearance by George Lucas (along with his entry, of course, which features the only good appearance thus far of Jar-Jar Binks.) AND: Lucas and Colbert fight it out at the end, with lightsabers
KTNV, the ABC affil in Las Vegas is asking its audience to choose its next traffic reporter. The station held open casting calls last month, and has chosen ten finalists. Now the viewers get a chance to see the auditions online and vote for their favorite. (Disclosure: I have a pony in this race, but out of fairness I will keep his/her identity under wraps until after the contest.)
As we reported Wednesday, Fox News had some of the first live video on the air from the scene of the NYC plane crash, thanks to a cell phone held by a Fox photographer. Turns out it was a Treo running CometVision software, which is set up to broadcast live video and audio with a touch of a button — even automatically alert newsroom staffers with an email. The video was jumpy, of course, especially because of the cell phone congestion in the area. Fox News has used the set up before at the Amish school shooting, and the picture was cleaner. And as cell service technologies improve, you can bet this will be SOP gear for news crews in the next couple years.
Financially troubled radio network Air America has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The network - set up as a liberal alternative to conservative talk radio - has had financial difficulties since its inception two years ago. An Air America spokeswoman says the network will stay on the air while it resolves its credit issues.
Qualcomm’s upcoming mobile video service, MediaFlo, has been approved by the FCC. Qualcomm has been buying up channel 55 in multiple markets with plans to broadcast video and data to portable devices at speeds much faster than current services.
As we 
