Career
In 1963, Jeanneret took over the play-by-play of a Niagara Falls Flyers Junior A hockey game for the regular announcer, Edd Felstead, who had become sick. Jeanneret became the color analyst the following season before assuming full-time play by play radio duties in 1965. During the 1960s and early 1970s, Rick did several radio advertisements for local Niagara Falls hardware store Buildall. When the Sabres took the ice for their second season, for a game with the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Aud on October 10, 1971, Jeanneret was in the radio booth high above the ice surface.
From 1984 until 1992, he did the Sabres' play-by-play in addition to being a popular early-morning disc jockey at CJRN-AM in Niagara Falls, Ontario. In 1992, he chose to retire from CJRN and concentrate solely on the Sabres. "I had enough of two jobs. I finished the game, came home and had to be up by 4 a.m.," he said.
Jeanneret helped close the Aud on the final night of the regular season in 1996 with an emotional tribute to his colleague Ted Darling, who was the voice of the Sabres from 1970 until worsening of his Pick's Disease forced him to retire in the midst of the 1991–92 season. "I wish that standing next to me right now would be Ted Darling," said Jeanneret from the ice surface in a postgame ceremony. "See you in September, one block in that direction," said Jeanneret, pointing toward the new arena, then dubbed the Crossroads Arena and now called First Niagara Center.
In 2005, Jeanneret and the Sabres released a CD that collected some of his most memorable calls. Proceeds from the CD, which was titled Roll the Highlight Film, went to charity. It was followed up in 2006 with Top Shelf (named after his signature call, "Top Shelf, where momma hides the cookies!"), a similarly themed DVD.
Due to increasing age and health concerns, Jeanneret's retirement has been long rumored and speculated. Each year since the 2004–05 NHL lockout, however, Jeanneret has effectively agreed to "one more year." Jeanneret's contract was extended in 2007 through the 2008–09 NHL season. It was further extended in 2008 through the 2009–10 season. He was back for the 2010–11 season along with Neale. Like in recent seasons, Jeanneret was on vacation while the Sabres had a pair of west coast road trips and a home game against the Boston Bruins from December 27, 2010 through January 8, 2011. He was also be off when the Sabres played the Ottawa Senators in Ottawa on January 25, 2011. During Jeanneret's vacation, his son Mark and Kevin Sylvester filled in on play-by-play from December 27, 2010 through January 8, 2011.
On May 26, 2011, the Sabres announced that Jeanneret (and Neale) would only cover home games and 10 to 15 road games for the Sabres in the 2011-12 NHL season. The road games will be determined once the 2011-2012 schedule will be released. This is in preparation for Jeanneret's pending retirement, in which Jeanneret stated that he almost retired after the 2010–11 season, but sought the reduced schedule instead. Studio host Kevin Sylvester was tabbed to call those road games, along with Danny Gare. Jeanneret has indicated he will take up an increased workload in 2012-13, although he will stop short of a full-time broadcast.
On June 27, 2012, Jeanneret announced that he would return to the broadcast booth full-time during the 2012-13 season.
Jeanneret appeared in a commercial for Molson Canadian, giving a call for a pick-up pond hockey game.
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