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

A round of cuts at Fisher Broadcasting will force KPIC anchor Dan Bain (pictured) and KCBY anchor Tim Novotny to sign off from their respective stations on March 9, according to the Douglas County News-Review.

Both Oregon stations — KPIC in Roseburg and  KCBY in Coos Bay — are satellite stations of KVAL, the CBS-affiliate in Eugene. Bain and Novotny present five-minute local updates each night packaged within the KVAL newscasts. Beginning March 9, staffers at the satellite stations will submit stories to KVAL, which will fold the reports into normal broadcasts using in-house anchors.

Bain, who is also the news director at KPIC, has anchored the evening updates for the station for 20 years. He will receive a severance package that has not been made public, according to the News-Review. Read more