 Among the news people who cut their teeth at WPLP in the early days are John McConnell, Terry McElhatton, Dave Hayes and Steve Triggs.Although WPLP was the first talk radio station in Tampa Bay, it struggled in the market.It briefly (August 1981-December 1982) had competition in WNSI at AM 1380, but when NSI changed its format WPLP went head-to-head with WFLA, a station with a more powerful signal and larger budget that routinely beat WPLP in the ratings after it switched to news/talk in 1986.