Community Wireless of Park City trustees axed the applications on the advice of trustee Joe Wrona who said pursuing construction permits for six stations would be at odds with KPCW's mission and the board's intent to focus its financial resources on the National Public Radio-affiliated station.

The decision also underscores the increasing independence of the board long dominated by Feulner. Earlier this week it accepted the resignation of KPCW's founder and longtime president of Community Wireless until March, when he quit that post.

"When I discovered that Mister Feulner was using Community Wireless to obtain these permits, I recommended to the board of trustees that we abandon any effort to perfect the applications," Wrona said Friday.

Wrona said the board agreed and at a meeting on July 24 told him to notify the Federal Communications Commission that Community Wireless' request was being retracted.

"And they have been withdrawn, and Community Wireless has abandoned any previous effort to compete for those permits," Wrona said.

Feulner declined to comment.

"I can't until I understand what's going on here," he said Friday. "I just don't have a comment at this time until I talk to [Wrona]."

Community Wireless applied for permits to build stations in Coalville, Cedar City, Richfield, Price, Moab and Nephi. The applications were received Oct. 25 at the FCC, three days after the agency closed a two-week window for seeking new radio permits, said Peter Doyle, chief of the FCC's Audio Division.

Doyle said Community Wireless asked the FCC to consider its applications anyway. It claimed that its papers failed to arrive on time because the FCC's electronic filing system was overloaded, he said.

In any event, the issue is moot.

"What I can tell you is, on Tuesday counsel for Community Wireless submitted requests to dismiss the six late-filed applications for new noncommercial stations in Utah," Doyle said.

The 11-member Community Wireless board traditionally has been composed of people hand-picked by Feulner and over the 28-year life of KPCW its members have been deeply loyal to him. The license applications were submitted to the FCC at a time when Feulner's control of Community Wireless was virtually unchallenged.

However, in the past year, the face of the board has changed significantly. More than half of the members, including Wrona, have served less than 12 months.

In that time, Community Wireless has arranged to sell KCPW-AM and KCPW-FM, its financially struggling sister stations in Salt Lake City, to IHR Educational Broadcasting, a California-based religious group, and Wasatch Public Media. The sales, expected to close in October, will net Community Wireless almost $4 million.

In March, the board's executive committee refused to sign an employment contract that would have given Feulner a paid leave of absence. Feulner responded by resigning as president of Community Wireless but stayed on as an "at-will" employee.

Shortly after Feulner announced on air that he was leaving on sabbatical, the board met in special session to consider his future with KPCW.

"Part of what you are seeing is the effect that a stronger and more independent board of trustees is having on the direction of Community Wireless," Wrona said.

Feulner and his wife, Susan, who co-managed KPCW, drew fire last year for receiving an $895,000 payment when Community Wireless sold a Coalville radio license of $3.6 million after acquiring it for $18,800 a decade earlier.

pbeebe@sltrib.com