DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are going to go ahead and remember CNN's first day on air with CNN at 20.</s>LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: We went through a month of rehearsals, and we had Mike Boettcher down in Miami reporting on the Mariel boatlift.</s>WATERS: In the Florida Straights, rough seas and high winds kept Cuban refugees out of their boats today. CNN's Mike Boettcher is in Key West. He says the port is quiet. For more on the story, let's go live to Key West and Mike Boettcher.</s>MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At the time we went on the air, Lou pitched to me on the docks in Key West, Florida, this kid covering the Cuban boatlift. The problem was, we didn't have communications with Atlanta.</s>WATERS: So we'll go back now, since we have things all under control, and here's Mike Boettcher.</s>BOETTCHER: ... right after sunset is the quietest it has been since the boatlift began one month ago.</s>BOETTCHER: CNN wanted to be live. The people at the time knew that that was what CNN was going to be about, bringing you events as they happen. This was the biggest moving event of that day, which was the Cuban boat lift. From that kind of little rocky beginning, we finally got it started and started doing live broadcasts of the boats arriving, and you know, at that point, we were able to see that, you know, maybe this thing is going to work.</s>BOETTCHER: Mike Boettcher, Cable News Network, Key West.
CNN 20: CNN's First Day Reporting, The Cuban Boatlift