Sinclair Broadcast Group is buying Fisher Communications for $373.3 million, the two companies announced Thursday.

Fisher owns 20 television stations in eight markets, reaching 3.9% of U.S. TV households (full list is after the jump). The transaction also includes three radio stations in Seattle. As part of the terms of the agreement, Fisher will provide “certain operating services” for three TV stations in Eugene, Ore. –  KMTR, KMCB and KTCW — after the transaction is approved by the FCC.

TVNewsCheck reports Sinclair won a bidding war with LIN Media for the station group “in a deal finalized in the wee hours of Tuesday night.”

“Sinclair is the largest independent TV broadcaster in the country, and we believe its commitment to the industry — along with its greater scale and sizable resources — will provide our stations, team members and business partners with new opportunities to flourish,” Fisher president and CEO Colleen B. Brown said in a statement. Read more

Tom Murphy is trying to land a job at KBAK-KBFX in Bakersfield so the Fisher-owned duopoly invited him on to its morning show this week to interview for a recently open reporter position.

Murphy, who is currently at WBKB in Alpena, MI, played a game of “this or that” and did a blind report in front of the station’s green screen (video above).

KBAK-KBFX is asking viewers to email their opinions of Murphy to viewer@bakersfieldnow.com.

A woman at the center of a love triangle that allegedly ended in murder attacked a KBAK-KBFX news crew this week as they were shooting video across the street from her home.

51-year-old Danny Mathis is accused of killing a man after he had sex with his ex-girlfriend, Chasidy Wilhite. A KBAK-KBFX crew was shooting outside of Wilhite’s house on Monday when she got into her minivan and drove into the station’s video equipment, knocking the tripod over and smashing the camera (video inside). Read more

Trying to gain 11,111 Facebook fans by 11/11/11, Bakersfield’s KBAK-KBFX has debuted a music video starring morning weathercaster Aaron Perlman that urges viewers to Like the station (video above).

“Like, Like, Like” is actually Perlman’s second Facebook-inspired song for KBAK-KBFX. In May, he won a “Facebook Faceoff” against his morning cohorts with a song titled “Facebook Friendship.” Read more

Conan O’Brien poked fun at content-sharing in local news this week, showing a clip on his show of several anchors repeating the same phrase — “push the envelope” — while reporting on the late night host’s plans to officiate a same-sex wedding on his show.

The original source of the copy was CBS Newspath, according to staffers at two stations featured in the clip. Although “Conan” only showed 18 stations, a search of TVEyes.com reveals that 27 stations reported the story using identical wording (a full list, including markets and affiliations, is after the jump.)

The script was tease copy for Monday’s “Eye on Entertainment” package, filed by CBS Newspath correspondent Sandra Hughes. The full version reads: “Conan O’Brien may be about to push the envelope on late night television. And British songstress Adele seems to have pushed her voice too far. CBS’ Sandra Hughes has those stories and more, in your Monday morning ‘Eye on Entertainment.’”

South Bend’s WSBT, which was featured in the Conan clip, addressed the situation on the 6 a.m. newscast this morning, calling it the “dark secret” of the news business. Read more

KBAK-KBFX morning weathercaster Aaron Perlman dressed up as the Invisible Man for Halloween today, taking advantage of the studio’s green screen.

Wearing a skin-tight green body suit and head covering, Perlman delivered the weather for most of the morning in a suit and sunglasses. For his final forecast of the day, though, Perlman went completely invisible. Well, until the KBAK-KBFX morning crew turned off the effects for a moment, revealing Perlman’s awkward body suit (video above).

It was apparently a little too early in the morning for Harry Belafonte. The legendary singer was supposed to do a satellite interview with the KBAK-KBFX morning team on Friday but when the camera cut to him live in New York he was fast asleep and couldn’t be roused for the interview, despite the best efforts of anchor Leyla Santiago (video above).

Cristi Jessee is set to join KBAK-KBFX on August 16. She will be the news director at the Fisher Communications duopoly in Bakersfield, CA.

Jessee has been the news director at KSAX, the ABC affiliate in Alexandria, MN, since 2009. Prior to that, she was a multimedia journalist at KXTV in Sacramento.

“As the local news landscape broadens to include various content platforms, Cristi’s work with social media and her experience as a multimedia journalist will strengthen the stations’ commitment to bringing viewers news when and where they want it,” KBAK-KBFX vice present and general manager Teresa Burgess said in a statement.

Jessee began her career as a production assistant at KARE in Minneapolis. She has also worked at WDAZ in Grand Forks, ND, KTHV in Little Rock and KCBS in Los Angeles.

Doug Barden, the news director at KBAK-KBFX in Bakersfield, CA, has been hired to lead the newsroom at San Luis Obispo’s KSBY.

Barden will replace Dave Schermer, who left the station earlier this year shortly after Kathleen Choal became the NBC-affiliate’s president and general manager.

Choal, a TV news veteran who previously served as news director and station manager at Tucson’s KVOA, was impressed by Barden’s resume.

“With his experience and passion for news, Doug was exactly the journalist I was looking for to lead this newsroom,” Choal told TVSpy.

Barden worked as an assistant news director at Salt Lake City’s KSTU and Reno’s KRNV before becoming KBAK-KBFX’s news director in 2008. His first day with KSBY is set for July 11th.

Taking a page from KUTV’s social media playbook, the morning team at KBAK-KBFX in Bakersfield, CA launched their own “Facebook Faceoff,” a competition to see who can gain the most fans on the ubiquitous social networking portal.

The clear winner has turned out to be weathercaster Aaron Perlman, who whipped out his acoustic guitar and made a music video (above).

As Lost Remote points out, though, Perlman was originally asking viewers to be his friend and not his fan so he quickly hit Facebook’s 5,000 person limit on friends. Perlman has since launched a fan page.