Step 5: Produce on your own equipment
OK, you've determined that you have a public access channel available, but you either don't have a studio to use, or decide to produce on your own equipment anyway.
Get a fast Mac or PC. Video editing requires tons of CPU and memory and disk space. A good PC might be a 3Ghz Pentium with MMX, 500 Mb of RAM min., and 30 gb of disk space, min. You will also need a "firewire" port. (USB-2 can also work with some cameras, but firewire is prefered). A decent PC will probably cost about $1200, and a Mac a little more. You can use a laptop, but generally you get more "bang for the buck" with a desktop or tower system.
Get the software. Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro are the best.
Get a digital video camera. There are several digital video cameras now in the $600 price range. You can also find them used. You will probably want one with "Mini-DV" tapes, but "Digital-8" is fine too. You probably want to stay away from "DVCAM", because the tapes are difficult to get.
Go to the library and get some books on video production. Study Audio, Lighting, and Storyboarding. Get creative!