Channel 13 made up for the preemption by airing "Bandstand"s syndicated rival, "Soul Train", on Saturday nights until independent station WPTY-TV (channel 24, now ABC affiliate WATN-TV) purchased the local rights to that program in 1983. It was one of the largest ABC affiliates to decline to air "AM America" when it debuted in 1975 and the station also initially didn't clear its successor "Good Morning America"; the latter program would not air on the station until 1977, initially for only an hour. Other popular shows that WHBQ-TV held out until later (when they became major out-of-the-box hits on ABC) included "Dark Shadows" (which featured actor Don Briscoe, who would later reside and died in Memphis), "S.W.A.T.", "Kids Are People Too", and "The Bionic Woman". In 1980, the station was criticized for carrying paid religious programming instead of ABC's coverage of the United States men's hockey team's gold medal victory over Finland in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York.