Michael King, Builder of a TV Empire

Michael King, who with his brother transformed King World Productions, a modest company they inherited from their father, into a syndicator of television megahits like “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune,” died on Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 67.

The King brothers seized an opening for independently produced and syndicated game shows and talk shows in the 1970s, when federal regulations limited how much programming the three major networks could own. Their eye for talent and salesmanship to local station managers helped make stars of Alex Trebek, Dr. Phil McGraw, Rachael Ray and Roseanne Barr, and transformed Winfrey into the nation’s top-rated daytime talk show host. By the mid-1990s, the proliferation of cable television, satellite networks and home video led the government to relax the ownership restrictions on network television, allowing the Kings to sell their company to CBS in 1999 for $2.5 billion in CBS stock. At the time, Michael King was King World’s vice chairman and Roger King was chairman.