Wheel is the top-rated show in its time period in 127 stations around the country - fully 70 percent of the markets in which it airs, according to Nielson statistics. Since King World began distributing it in 1983, 'Wheel' has obliterated most of the competition in its time slots while racking up the sort of ratings that make station managers and advertisers drool. This rapid rise from 'Rascals' to riches is largely the result of the astonishing success of 'Wheel of Fortune' - a show loosely based on the childhood game of Hangman, with contestants taking turns spinning a giant cash wheel for the right to guess the letters that make up the hidden word or phrase. 10 at $10 a share, closed yesterday at $17. It distributes 'Wheel of Fortune' and 'Jeopardy!' - two of television's top-rated game shows - and is coming off a lucrative public offering that turned the King family into multimillionaires and the company into a Wall Street wheel of fortune. Today, King World is indisputably the hottest company around in the cutthroat $1.2 billion market for syndicated television programs. was a tiny, family-run New Jersey company that eked out its existence by selling 'Little Rascals' reruns to television stations.

Two years ago, King World Productions Inc.

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