In the November issue of Cleveland Magazine, there is a riveting piece on the comeback of Cleveland radio legend Bruce Drennan after spending five months in federal prison on book-making and gambling charges. The whole backstory is there and makes for a great read.

I was never a huge Drennan guy, but have met him in person and he seems like a good guy.  My brother has said nothing but good things about him having been a guest on his show and working with him last March. Hey, he had his vise - Gambling - and it nearly cost him everything. But he paid the price, did his time, and has re-invented himself.

Only in this market! Seriously though, good for Bruce. The guy has been in the Cleveland sports media since I’ve been in diapers and is back on STO having fun.

Here is an interesting excerpts from the piece:

Bruce considered having Jackie drive him to prison, but it would be way too hard. It is hard enough to say goodbye at the house, where Jackie and his mother peer out the window as they pull out of the driveway.

Clay Cozart, who left the radio business and is now a detective with the Akron Police Department, pulls up to Bruce’s driveway before sunrise. Clay has borrowed a friend’s cushy four-door sedan to make the three-and-a-half-hour trip to Morgantown, W.Va., more comfortable.

Bruce had taken a job with an Internet radio station and was doing the SportsTalkCleveland.com show for a few months before he reported to prison on Oct. 4, 2006. He took the job on Jackie’s urging. She saw him festering in the house and wanted him to have some outlet — something to occupy his mind. “It was kind of like therapy,” Bruce says.

One day, following a broadcast, Jim Liberatore and Pat Kilkenney of the fledgling regional sports cable station, SportsTime Ohio, stopped by Bruce’s office in the Cleveland Hits Building at East 55th and Marginal. They wanted to meet him.

It was a short conversation, but Liberatore and Kilkenney made it clear they’d like to talk when Bruce got out of jail. They thought there might be a place for him at their new station.

Bruce and his “I love ya, Cleveland” catch phrase intrigued Liberatore, the president of STO. But while the free publicity might be valuable, making a convicted felon the face of the station could be disastrous.

They’d wait and see what Bruce’s attitude was like when he got out of prison.

But as he climbs into Clay’s car, Bruce is confident: He has a job lined up.