[Jeffhs]

I just looked at the Wikipedia listing for KJWP-TV and found that it is an affiliate of the MeTV network. Its subchannels carry Justice TV, Grit, and Escape. However, when I looked up the station's FCC listing, I saw that it was an NBC affiliate, with no mention made of the subchannels. It wouldn't have made sense anyway for this station to be an NBC affiliate, since Philadelphia's NBC station is on channel 10.

It is not possible for two television stations in different cities or states to have the same call sign. The FCC doesn't assign TV call letters that way under any circumstances, although it is possible for radio stations (AM and FM) in two different towns to have the same calls. However, there are exceptions, such as the three network TV stations in New York City, WNBC, WABC and WCBS. The WNBC calls are no longer used by the city's former NBC radio network affiliates, but no other other radio station in the United States can use those call letters; the same applies to WABC-FM (now WPLJ-FM). The reason for this, I think, is the New York callsigns are so iconic that their former owners do not want them to be associated with any other radio station in the country. The same reasoning could also be applied to former NBC-owned and operated radio stations WMAQ-AM-FM (now WSCR-AM and WKQX-FM) in Chicago, although the ruling is especially strict in New York because of the associations with the former NBC and current ABC radio networks.

Another loophole, quirk, call it what you will, exists in San Francisco, applying to its KNBR-AM. This station was formerly owned and operated by NBC but, for reasons unclear to me, it was allowed to keep the callsign when the NBC radio network was disbanded and sold to Westwood One in 1986. The station is now under new ownership (has been for over two decades) and is an ESPN sports radio affiliate. NBC operated an AM and FM radio station and a TV station in Cleveland (WKYC-AM-FM-TV) from 1948 to 1955 and again from 1965 to 1972; however, when the radio stations were sold to different media groups in 1972, they were forced to change their call signs.

The former WKYC-AM, however, recovered its heritage callsign, WTAM, over ten years ago; the reason was the company that currently owns that station wanted a callsign containing the letters "AM", not necessarily because WTAM was the station's original callsign when it first signed on in 1923.

The television station, however, was allowed to keep the WKYC call sign even after it was sold by NBC to a local media group in 1990, and again when the station was sold a second time to yet another media company. That second media group is Gannett Broadcasting, which has owned WKYC-TV since the late 1990s. Why the station was allowed to retain those calls is beyond me, unless NBC's ironclad ownership rule for callsigns only applied to its New York City radio stations.