Raining on Their Gulf War Parade : Hollywood: The city and Chamber of Commerce awarded broadcast rights for the event to one station, KTLA-TV, whose vice president is also honorary mayor. At least one rival station is crying foul.

As Los Angeles plans a nationally televised homecoming parade for Gulf War troops, rival television stations have gone to battle over the event, and city officials and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce have been caught in the cross-fire.

At issue is whether the city and the chamber unfairly awarded one station, KTLA-TV (Channel 5), exclusive rights to televise the “Welcome Home Desert Storm Parade,” which is being billed as the city’s official show of support for U.S. soldiers.

At least one rival, KNBC-TV (Channel 4), contends that KTLA has gotten a sweetheart deal that will allow it to profit handsomely from the parade, even though the city and the chamber are sponsoring it and taxpayers are helping to foot the bill.

“Welcoming home our war veterans,” said one KNBC television executive, “should not be a profit-making venture.”

Much of the dispute centers on the multiple parade roles played by Johnny Grant: honorary mayor of Hollywood, producer of the parade, co-chairman of the event with Bradley, member of the Chamber of Commerce board of directors--and vice president of KTLA.

KNBC General Manager John A. Rohrbeck said he has complained directly to Mayor Tom Bradley and his staff, telling them the KTLA deal was “very inappropriate.”

“I told them that . . . they had been duped or had willingly acquiesced to giving KTLA exclusive rights for purposes of their own monetary gain. This is an arrangement designed by . . . KTLA for their own self-interest.”

Also at issue is whether the city should be subsidizing a profit-making venture, especially when KTLA won’t let other stations air the two-hour event unless they pay $250,000 apiece.

A third station, KCAL-TV (Channel 9) has put its lawyers to work to see if KTLA can legally bar them from broadcasting the parade without paying.

“We feel the event is public and that we have the right to be there if we so choose,” said KCAL Programming Director Matt Cooperstein.

KTLA spokesman Ed Harrison said the station has every right to make a profit from the parade and charge other stations money to show it, to help offset expenses. The parade was KTLA’s idea in the first place, he said, and the station plans to spend at least $650,000 in organizing it. The money will help defray the costs of bringing in military armaments for display in the parade and for setting up bleachers and restroom facilities for viewers.

The squabble has become so contentious that Bradley, the parade’s co-chairman, recently was forced to call representatives of the warring stations to a City Hall meeting to try to negotiate a settlement.

So far, the mayor’s peacemaking efforts have been unsuccessful. As both KNBC and KTLA refuse to budge, Bradley has resorted to simply expressing hope that the parade “reaches the largest audience possible.”

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has tried to distance itself from the controversy as well. “The competitive situation between the TV stations is between them and is not our concern,” said Christopher Baumgart, the group’s newly elected board chairman.

Grant dismissed the controversy as sour grapes on KNBC’s part, and predicted that the parade would be one of the biggest celebrations ever thrown in Los Angeles.

Grant said that as many as 1 million spectators will be on hand to cheer on soldiers, veterans, celebrities, floats, marching bands and vintage and current military planes, tanks and other equipment as they make their way down Hollywood and Sunset boulevards.

Entertainers Bob Hope and James Stewart have been tapped to help lead the parade as honorary co-chairmen. Other celebrities who served in the armed forces will pull their old uniforms out of mothballs and put them on, and F-16 Phantom jets will streak through the skies above Hollywood, Grant said.

The parade will travel the same route as the Hollywood Christmas Parade, starting at KTLA’s headquarters at the corner of Sunset and Van Ness Avenue. And like the Christmas Parade, it will be telecast live by KTLA and distributed by KTLA’s parent company to a network of more than 100 stations nationwide for broadcast Memorial Day weekend.

“It’ll be the biggest, most spectacular welcome home in the country,” Grant said.

It also may be the most controversial, thanks in large part to Grant.

It was Grant who, with the apparent acquiescence of the chamber’s board of directors, went to the mayor for approval of the project.

Some rival television executives have said that Grant’s positions at the chamber and KTLA may be a conflict of interest, or at best, a convenient blurring of his official and commercial duties.

Official parade stationery makes no mention of KTLA’s role in coordinating the event, saying only that it is being “presented by the city of Los Angeles and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.” But it lists Grant’s KTLA office address at 5800 Sunset Blvd. and his phone number under the city and chamber heading.

A longtime fixture on the Hollywood scene, Grant said he got the idea for the homecoming parade during two visits to the troops in Saudi Arabia.

When the war ended, Grant said he got the chamber to agree to accept corporate donations for the parade. KTLA agreed to pay the chamber $250,000 for expenses in exchange for exclusive broadcasting, syndication and licensing rights.

Grant said the mayor then agreed to lend his support and the city’s endorsement to the parade, and to contribute police protection, traffic control and cleanup crews. Asked why no other stations were given the chance to compete for the rights to televise the parade, Grant said, “there was really no time” because the parade had to be organized quickly.

“And I’ll tell you something else,” Grant said. “If I went to other stations with this idea, they would have laughed. Now that it’s big, they all want in.”

Bradley spokesman Bill Chandler referred questions about the competitive bid process to the chamber. And he said the city often contributes police, traffic and cleanup services for major events. Chandler said he could not confirm estimates by rival stations that city services provided to KTLA for the parade would cost at least $300,000 in public funds and perhaps three times that much.

After KNBC initially complained, Bradley suggested that other stations be allowed to televise the event if they also contributed $250,000, and if they agreed--as KTLA has done--not to break for commercials during the telecast. KTLA does, however, plan to superimpose commercial messages on the screen during the program.

Potentially the most profitable aspect of the parade is the syndication to local stations around the country. Under federal regulations, however, this course is open to KTLA, an independent station, but not to network affiliates, such as KNBC.

As a result, KNBC officials have rejected Bradley’s suggestion that they pay the $250,000 to air the parade, saying that without syndication possibilities, it would be hard to recoup their investment.

KTLA has agreed to contribute some of its potential profits to charity, Harrison said.

Universal Studios and another firm also have contributed a total of $315,000 to the parade in exchange for promotional announcements, their own floats and other advertising arrangements, Grant and Harrison said.