Bruce Drennan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article.
Please improve it or discuss changes on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions.

Bruce Drennan has been a radio & television sportscaster for 35 years.

The Chicago native came to Cleveland in the spring of 1978. Bruce first emerged on the Cleveland airwaves as an afternoon drive sports talk show host on WBBG Radio.

His opinionated 'tell it like it is' style made such an impression that he landed the Cleveland Indians Color Analyst position on WUAB teaming with Hall of Famer Joe Tait. Bruce held this position for the 1980-82 Cleveland Indians seasons [1].

While announcing the games, Bruce made the expressions 'ducks on the pond' and 'the bags are juiced' household phrases. During this same period, Bruce also called the play by play of Cleveland Cavaliers Basketball on WUAB, working with former NBA star Austin Carr.

Bruce has also worked with the late Nev Chandler calling the Cleveland Force Indoor Soccer games aired on WUAB.

Bruce was then hired to host a post-game talk show on WHK Radio in Cleveland, the flagship home of Cleveland Browns football.

In 1984, Bruce was hired by WWWE Radio as a morning drive sports anchor and weekend talk-show host. In the late 80's, Bruce's 'in your face' entertaining style landed him the position of WWWE Sportsline Host, replacing the legendary Pete Franklin.

Prior to obtaining the morning drive anchor position at WTAM, Bruce also hosted his own talk show on TV-29 in Akron for 3 years.

His work as morning drive sports anchor earned him back to back awards for Best Cleveland Sportscaster in 1997 and 1998.

Bruce was inducted along with Phil Donahue into the Radio/Television Broadcasters Hall of Fame on November 7, 1999.

Bruce then moved to night-time talk as the show host for the flagship station of Cleveland Indians baseball and Cleveland Cavaliers Basketball.

In 2001 Bruce moved to WKNR to host morning drive sports talk.

May 1, 2003 was a special day for Bruce as then Cleveland Mayor Jane L. Campbell offered her proclamation in recognition of Bruce's accomplishments celebrating his 25 years as a broadcaster in the City of Cleveland.

In September 2004 Drennan's home in Strongsville, Ohio was raided by FBI and IRS agents as part of an illegal gambling sting. He subsequently lost his job at WKNR because of the investigation and served as the mid-morning talk show host and Program Director for sportstalkCLEVELAND via the Internet.

In April 2006 Drennan was charged with two counts of filing false tax returns. He later agreed to a plea bargain and served five months in prison. [2] He is under house arrest, with work privileges, through August 2007. Drennan hopes to return to broadcasting and industry rumors suggest that a position with SportsTime Ohio is possible. [3]