To change the background color you should be able to just edit the $vbnews_ticker template and add something like this in this div tag:
Code:
<div align="center" style="padding:7px">
right before the "> add
Code:
z-index: -1; background-color:#FF0000; layer-background-color:#FF0000;
- change the colors as necessary.
Also, remove the padding:7px to adjust the height (or change the number to a lower number).