for the 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons, Anderson, had initially been very poor, to the point where despite being placed in an earlier time slot, it had caused harm to both the show airing immediately after it (The Dr. Oz Show) and the evening newscasts, which are currently firmly in second place, halfway between new market leader WGRZ (which has The Ellen DeGeneres Show as a lead-in to its evening newscast) and third-place WKBW-TV (which had The Doctors as its lead-in). By the start of the 2012 season, the ratings for both Anderson and the WIVB-TV newscasts had recovered. By November 2018, WIVB had reclaimed the lead in news viewership following several years in which WGRZ had the highest viewership. The station and its staff have won several Emmy Awards including one in 1999. Notable former staff Marty Angelo – producer, creator, writer (1977–1980) – Disco Step-by-Step Dance TV Show Stan Barron – occasional sports contributor (1965–1984) John Beard – anchor (1978–1981; later worked in Los Angeles at KNBC and KTTV, then returned to Buffalo to anchor Daybreak for WGRZ) Jericka Duncan – reporter; now at CBS News Tom Jolls – WBEN-TV news anchor (early 1960s); left for WKBW-TV in 1965 to become weather anchor for 34 years Chuck Lampkin – anchor (1970–1980) Van Miller – sports director, weather anchor and host of It's Academic and Beat the Champ (1955–1998); also radio broadcaster for the Buffalo Bills John Murphy – sports director from (2008 to 2012); now at WGR as a radio host Kevin O'Connell – weather anchor (1970s); left for Los Angeles at KNBC, KCBS-TV and KABC-TV; hosted the NBC game show Go!; then returned in the mid-1980s before moving to WGRZ-TV in the mid-1990s Pam Oliver – reporter (1988–1990; left to become a sideline reporter for NFL on Fox and NBA on TNT) Dick Rifenburg – sports (1951–1982) Tom Torbjornsen – automotive expert (2000s) Technical information Subchannels The station's digital signal is multiplexed: Analog-to-digital conversion WIVB-TV discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, at 9 a.m. on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 39. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 4. It is one