Rose Parade Will March Without KTTV’s Cameras : Television: Channel 11 abandons its longtime coverage, citing the station’s pending move to the Westside--and not KTLA’s ratings domination.

KTTV-TV Channel 11 is raining on the 1996 Rose Parade.

For the first time since KTTV signed onto the airwaves with the parade of Jan. 1, 1949, the station will not broadcast the Pasadena event as part of its New Year’s Day lineup.

Hilda Ramirez, a spokeswoman for the Fox-owned station, said the decision was made “because of our pending move” in early spring from Hollywood to a new building in West Los Angeles.

She insisted that it had nothing to do with KTTV’s parade ratings, which for two decades have fallen far behind those of rival KTLA-TV Channel 5.

“Have you ever moved a television station?” Ramirez asked. “It’s a huge technical project. Right now, all of our technical resources are going into the move--people, equipment, everything.”

Will the station come back to the parade in 1997? “No decision has been made as yet,” she said.

Bill Flinn, associate executive director of the Tournament of Roses Assn., said that when KTTV informed him of the decision some six or seven months ago, he was told that “they’re anticipating they will be back next year. Obviously we feel bad, they feel bad. They’ve [always] been part of our family.”

KTTV has kept its decision not to air the parade quiet. No press release was ever issued. But it became industry knowledge when KTTV indicated it was dropping key camera sites at the parade’s heart on Orange Grove and Colorado boulevards.

Joe Quasarano, KTLA’s executive producer of the Rose Parade, said that he found out about the cancellation of coverage in May at the time the station was making arrangements to rent positions from the Elks Club at Orange Grove and Colorado.

“They [Channel 11] claim it’s because they are moving facilities,” Quasarano said. “Personally, I find it hard to believe that they would give up those great camera positions--they had the second-best camera positions to us--because they may never get them back. KMEX Channel 34 picked up some, we picked up a couple of them and it was all divvied up.”

“We’ve trounced them regularly” in the ratings, he added. “I’ve been involved with this parade for 18 years. We have always dominated.”

In 1995, KTTV aired 12 hours of parade coverage including repeats. Announcement as to what it will broadcast instead this Jan. 1 is expected Tuesday.