more." According to Palmer, this policy, implemented the preceding summer, was introduced because: "a) we do local news, b) the issue evolved from hard science into hard politics and c) despite what you may have heard from the mainstream media, this science is far from conclusive." In an e-mail message to the station's operations manager, a news anchor, and a news reporter, Palmer placed "global warming stories in the same category as 'the killer African bee scare' from the 1970s or, more recently, the Y2K scare when everyone's computer was going to self-destruct." Palmer eventually told the Bangor Daily News that the e-mail was in response to an "overtly political" report from a former reporter and that the station did not intend to stop reporting on global warming altogether; on the following night's newscast, WVII broadcast a report in which residents were asked if they felt global temperatures were rising "so we could immediately dispel the rumor." In August 2008, WVII and WFVX began to split live coverage of New England Patriots pre-season games. Channel 7 had previously shown the games in 1995 and since 2001; however, National Football League rules required WVII to show them on tape delay, despite several efforts by the station to carry live telecasts. WVII has been digital-only since February 17, 2009, the original date when all television stations in the United States transitioned from analog broadcasts to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (the date would later change to June 12, 2009). Initially, the digital signal remained on UHF channel 14 (where it broadcast before the transition), but it subsequently returned to its former analog channel, 7. The station received national attention when the station's main anchor team, Cindy Michaels (who also acted as WVII/WFVX's news director) and Tony Consiglio (who also doubled as executive producer), resigned their positions on-air at the end of the 6 p.m. newscast on November 20, 2012; effective immediately. Michaels and Consiglio later told the Bangor Daily News and other media outlets that they felt compelled to resign due to conflicts with upper management of both the station and Rockfleet. They claimed that management interfered with the news department so much that in the end, it was impossible to present balanced newscasts. They took the step of resigning on-air because they wanted a chance to say goodbye to their viewers. They were replaced by former WABI-TV and WQCB radio news