I used to work at a FOX affiliate outside of Washington, DC. This was years ago. I spent part of my time in the promotions department and writing commercials. I spent the rest of me time in production, operating the sound board and graphics for live newscasts and studio shows. I also jumped on camera when they needed me; though when out in the field I found the portable cameras too heavy.

From time to time someone would see my name in the credits or tell me they had heard me on the radio if I stopped by one of the local stations to plug something on for the TV station. It was my little moment of semi-fame. One of my friends told me I was a local celebrity. I used to chuckle at that one.

Back then, the reach of the station was only as far as the airwaves or cable network took us. It’s not like today, where anyone can shoot some video and upload it to a site like YawpBox for the entire world to see. Your 15 minutes of fame can go worldwide if you play things right in our current culture.

Anyone can sign onto YawpBox.com and upload videos, pictures, blog entries or almost anything else and make it public. There are tons of topics provided to inspire you to get creative. I was looking at the topic “Part-time paparazzi? Prove your celebrity encounter” and someone had uploaded a very old signed photo of Stacy Freguson from back when she was a cheesy Kids, Incorporated star. Now she is Fergie of music infamy, of course. It was fun to get to see this old piece of pop culture.

The biggest part of sites like this is video, of course. User-generated video is quick becoming one of the hugest sources of online entertainment. My nephew is 18 and told me he will sit for hours and just the funny crap people upload. People like you and me are capturing funny or shocking or cool things on video and sometimes of the clips will go viral and hit a level of fame before you can blink twice.

YawpBox has this feature, a 30-minute weekly show that they film in front of a live studio audience in Dallas called YawpBoxTV. 100% of the content for the show is going to be from user generated by members of YawpBox. The hosts, Lex and Terry, will show popular uploaded videos and introduce us to the people behind the videos. Play your cards right and you could be on YawpBoxTV. How cool is that?

Every week on the show, the hosts assign the Lex & Terry challenge. That’s a special category they challenge viewers to create content for. In an era where reality TV is all the rage, this is the ultimate incarnation of that phenomenon.