NEW YORK (CNN) - Yesterday was my final appearance on the air for CNN, which I joined more than 25 years ago, when a 24-hour, all-news network was just a much-derided idea developed by Ted Turner and a few pioneering news executives.

As financial editor from the start, I encountered all kinds of skepticism about the idea of a half-hour program covering business and financial news on network television, which we called Moneyline. You won't have any action, the doubters contended. All you'll have are talking heads, they said in hushed tones, as if they were using words that were anathema in TV news. But we, and others, demonstrated that talking heads are okay, if they say something relevant or important while they're talking. And we needed those talking heads because in those days, we had no graphics or many correspondents in the field. Now, of course, we have lots of both.

But we did have lots of action, maybe not riots or fires or car chases, but events that have been vital to the financial lives and well-being of our viewers. We covered the biggest bull market in Wall Street history, one that was only briefly interrupted by the biggest crash ever in October, 1987, and then finally ended by the bursting of the dot-com and technology bubble five years ago this month. There were soaring, then collapsing and then soaring again oil prices; the savings-and-loan debacle; Wall Street and corporate scandals, and efforts to save Social Security. Some of those events came around more than once.

Economic policies were set by a Reagan, two Bushes and a Clinton. There were OPEC, NAFTA, SEC, FCC, FTC and many other initials and acronyms. We covered Paul Volcker, Alan Greenspan, Arthur Levitt, Bill Donaldson, Richard Grasso, Warren Buffett, Sandy Weill, Jack Welch, Mike Milken, Ivan Boesky, Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, Martha Stewart and countless others, on both sides of the law. And we tried to make sure that those talking heads we did put on the air had something valuable to say.

And along the way, there were indeed dramatic pictures, some of which we wished we'd never seen, such as the realities of war, space tragedies, and the attack on the World Trade Center. The lobby of one of those fallen towers was where we broadcast from in our early years.

I take special pride, of course, in having helped start our parent network, CNN, and in demonstrating that business news deserved an important place in the television spectrum. In addition to Moneyline and a number of other programs on CNN and CNN International, we launched an all-financial news network, CNNfn, which, sadly, was closed down last Demember after nine feisty years. But still going strong -- and growing -- after more than nine years is another pioneering news venture -- this flourishing web site: CNNMoney.

My colleagues and I have done our best to present an accurate, honest and fair news report that not only informs our viewers and readers without ideology, but also helps guide them through the complexities and contradictions of financial events. It's been my honor to be part of that, and even though my on-air duties have come to an end, ... I hope my friends at this web site will allow me to continue to express my views here from time to time.

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