Local channel mapping (duplicates)

[harrisburgpatv]

After nearly 10 years of having "moved" to get other locals, I finally "moved" to where the dish is actually installed to get my true locals. However, four channels are showing up twice in the guide with different numbers. WGAL on 4 and 8, WPMT on 5 and 43, WHTM on 7 and 27, and WHP on 9 and 21. The single-digit numbers are the duplicates. Why would this be?

 

[lordodogg]

I believe the duplicates were originally supposed to be Washington, DC local channels for the Fulton and/or Franklin counties in PA (Fulton is in the DC market, but Franklin has always swapped between both markets historically).
When they decided to drop neighboring locals from many of those kinds of markets in 2022, they ended up retaining the "Big 4" neighboring stations only to just make them duplicates of the in-market station.
I have no idea why they would do such a thing, to be honest.

 

[harrisburgpatv]

I believe the duplicates were originally supposed to be Washington, DC local channels for the Fulton and/or Franklin counties in PA (Fulton is in the DC market, but Franklin has always swapped between both markets historically).
When they decided to drop neighboring locals from many of those kinds of markets in 2022, they ended up retaining the "Big 4" neighboring stations only to just make them duplicates of the in-market station.
I have no idea why they would do such a thing, to be honest.

You know, this crossed my mind as in DC 4, 5, 7 and 9 are NBC, FOX, ABC and CBS, respectively. This makes a lot of sense.