Getting a commercial on TV...
 

Okay, I'm new to all of this. I've been doing some commercials for local businesses in my area who are anxious to advertise. The problem is that they have no idea what to do with the tape when I give it to them. I'd like to be able to take care of everything for them, but I don't know how to go about getting the commercials on the air either. Anyone know?

They have to buy ad time with a broadcaster, such as a local television station or cable company. Tell them to call a local tv station's marketing department.

Better yet, call the local media outlets *yourself* (local broadcast stations as well as local cable provider). In some cases, you can position yourself as an "agency" and get 10%-15% of the commission. If you have the time, this is a way to increase your profits -- often, the ad rep will still work out the schedule for you (when and where it will air) and all you have to do is make the ad and deal with the client.

EDIT -- just to clarify, I know this b/c my wife is a former Account Exec (read: ad sales rep) for the local cable provider, which I produce ads for on a freelance basis. In fact, if you get in good with the local ad reps (tho' you don't have to marry them!), they'll send work to you. 100% of the work I do is sent to me by the sales reps (although I only do ads part-time)

Ah, excellent suggestion, John!

By the way, Nicholas, I just noticed you are in Atlanta. You will probably want to contact Comcast Spotlight (formerly known as CAMA - Cable Advertising of Metro Atlanta, if you have an older phone book). They handle the ad sales for Comcast cable (as well as for Charter cable, here in Athens). They are the folks I deal with -- although I only deal with the people here in the Athens office, all the Comcast Spotlight folks I've met have been pretty good folks. I cannot attest to how they work with freelancers in Atlanta, though (availability of shoots, etc). They do have an in-house production team, but some reps prefer to work with freelancers.

Addendum (now that I'm back from lunch and not multi-tasking while I post):

Another clarification: I do not operate as an agency, and if I did operate as such, it might reduce the amount of ad work that is offered to me by the sales reps (since they're not eager to give up part of their commission). So that's a choice to consider when deciding if you will present yourself as an agency: getting a percentage of the commission vs. the possibility of getting more ad work from the sales reps.

Thanks so much everyone. I figured Comcast was the way to go, for the Atlanta area, but wasn't sure how to go about it. I like the idea of setting myself up as an agency, for commission, because I don't need the extra ad work.

unfortunately, most of customer requesting for an ad, usually see the cost of renting such space on regular channel as prohibitive , often compared to the price of the ad itself.
What they can do is to push the ad on uncommon channel like supermarket close TV, video stores, gasoline station,or places related to their products(swimming pool, health club, bars etc...). They can try too a kind of swap (relative to the type of product or service) with other company.
they could add videoCD into the package product or provide the manual on CD +the ads.
a well known exemple is the live distribution of free cars at the end of a show. Probably the sales rep. can propose such a thing.
let's try to be creative....