Then Feulner expanded Park City's KPCW into the Salt Lake Valley as sister station KCPW. That has stretched its reach nearly statewide, competing with fellow National Public Radio affiliate KUER, entrenched at the University of Utah.

But the cost of Feulner's drive and passion, which once flowed to the community for a pittance, has increased along with his signal, rising as high as many managers of commercial radio stations.

Blair and his wife, Susan, then the nonprofit station's co-manager and chief fundraiser, cleared $280,000 between them in 2003, the most recent tax records available.

Susan ended her full-time employment a year ago and went on to collect $50,000 as a consultant to the station. Feulner remains as general manager and likely will make this year between $150,000 and $165,000, according to the president of KCPW's board, Tom Calder.

But the spectacular reward for the Feulners' years of hard work came last year when the board sold a Coalville station license purchased for $18,800 thanks to Feulner's deal-making savvy. The license, purchased in the early 1990s, reaped $3.6 million.

Susan and Blair Feulner's personal share of the windfall was $895,000. The amount was paid in cash, separate and apart from their salaries.

The board's $2.7 million share soon will become the basis of an endowment for the stations, says KCPW board member David Simmons of the deal. "It was like finding a lottery ticket."

To give some scale to the Feulners' compensation, KCPW raised $260,000 at its recent biannual fundraiser. It was the first time the station broke $200,000, Feulner says. (In Park City, KPCW raised another $200,000.) The stations' combined operating budget is less than $2 million. A substantial part of the station's revenue comes from grants, sponsorships and corporate underwriting.

"Wow!" said Donna Maldonado, general manager for Salt Lake public radio station KRCL upon learning of the Feulners' compensation. "I've been in public radio for 25 years. I don't know anyone else who makes salaries like that at a nonprofit."

Simmons, who is chief executive at Simmons Media Group, was involved in Feulner contract negotiations last year. The salary - roughly on the high end for community radio general managers, but in the middle-to-low end for commercial radio - is reasonable, he says. "I know what it takes to have good and talented people."

But Simmons acknowledges that a community radio station "is not a place for people to be if they want to make a lot of money. They are doing it for community."

Listeners and underwriters, who ultimately pay the Feulners' salaries, will not be dismayed to learn the extent of the couple's compensation, Simmons says. "I think the first and foremost concern of any listener is the quality of the broadcast."

Feulner says he deserves the pay because he "does multiple jobs at multiple stations" as manager, on-air talent and a fundraiser. "I'm a huge part of the product," says Feulner.

Underwriter Steve Rosenberg, owner of Liberty Heights Fresh market, was clearly concerned upon learning of the Feulners' pay package. Although he refused comment to a Tribune reporter, he called station executives. Feulner says he met with him to reassure him that the station's finances were being handled appropriately.

'Ashes and sackcloth': In the early years - KPCW is celebrating its 25th anniversary and KCPW its 17th - he and Susan were poorly compensated and had no retirement plan. From 1980 to 1989, KPCW paid them each $13,000 a year, Feulner says.

"This was to make up for those years of ashes and sackcloth," he says of the renegotiated pay.

Perhaps more to the point, board members believe that if the Feulners left, it would have cost significantly more to replace them. "If Blair was killed in a car accident tomorrow," says Calder, "we would be in trouble. This is really a one-man station. He built it and he put it together."

"We've got a national reputation here," Feulner says of his labors. "We could leave for another state. In my case, they would have to hire three people to replace me."

Other public radio managers are stunned when they learn what Feulner makes.

"For me to ask for $100,000 at KUER would be inappropriate in the extreme - and my boss would make that clear," says John Greene, general manager of KUER.

Dick Kunkel is general manager of KPBX in Spokane, a community station that has about the same number of listeners and operating budget as KCPW. Kunkel's pay is $55,000 a year.

"Is that job coming open soon?" Kunkel jokes on hearing Feulner's salary. "That's a pretty sweet deal."

Kunkel feels he has to keep his own pay in line with other employees at his station: reporters in the low-$20,000 range and the news director in the low $30,000s. It's the culture of community radio, he says.

"That sensibility grew out of years of fundraising and telling listeners, 'Remember, you are like the stockholder of the station.' I know that my pay is not out of line with what they consider reasonable."

A 2004 salary report prepared by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting finds salaries for chief executives at stations with budgets about the same size as KCPW's fall in a range roughly between $50,000 and $113,000.

A pay package like the Feulners' would be found at stations with budgets twice the size of KCPW and KPCW.

Aside from annual pay, the nearly $900,000 windfall last year to the Feulners was rooted in Blair's stumbling over radio license KCUA-FM in Coalville 13 years earlier.

As Feulner tells it, the license was languishing because the owner repeatedly postponed construction of the station. Under pressure from the Federal Communications Commission to build or give the license up, the owner was willing to sell to KPCW at a bargain price: $18,800.

Though the board officially held the license, it acknowledged Blair's work and agreed that, should the license be sold, the couple would get a share of the money.

In the meantime, the board increased the Feulners' salaries, tying them to fundraising.

Feulner arranged the sale of the Coalville license for $3.5 million. In recognition of the couple's role in the license and negotiating the sale, the board gave the Feulners each 12.5 percent of the proceeds -$447,500 apiece.

"If we wanted to be greedy," Blair says of the original agreement, "we could have taken the whole damn thing."

Aggressive risk-takers: The Feulners' creative fundraising and aggressive business strategy continued with the recent acquisition of a 50,000 watt AM license (1010 on the dial) to simulcast KCPW's weaker FM signal through much of the state.

But that AM reach came with risk. To raise $2.5 million to buy the 1010 wavelength, Feulner engineered a bond issue. That he was able to cut the deal, he says, is a testament to KPCW/KCPW's fundraising reputation and financial stability. The annual bond payments will be $200,000 for 25 years beginning next year. KCPW's fundraising must grow to cover the payments.

"There are not a lot of public stations willing to take this risk," Feulner says.

KUER's Greene says the bonding is a recent development in public radio that has enabled stations to expand.

Still, Greene says, "I wouldn't want to be saddled with that kind of debt. If the business economy sours, your underwriting goes south."

Stations nationwide are watching KCPW's experiments with bonding and AM, Feulner says. "We are making a huge bet that we can do what we did in Park City."

Then, referring to new listener research that he says shows KCPW, FM and AM combined rivals KUER in the all-important morning drive time, Feulner adds, "And it absolutely worked."

Even if the AM expansion fails, Feulner says, the 1010 license is appraised at $3.5 million. "The worst thing [that could happen] is I make a million dollars on the deal - maybe a hell of a lot more."

Commercial radio executive Simmons, admits he is impressed by Feulner's risk-taking: "This is a group of very entrepreneur-minded and public-minded broadcasters. I find that extremely refreshing."

Check out your nonprofit The federal government requires nonprofit organizations, including public radio stations, to make some of their tax records (Form 990s) available to the public at the nonprofit's offices or by mail. Most nonprofit financial and other information is also available online:

http://www.guidestar.com or http://www.nccs.urban.org/990

Because stations often do not file under their call letters, they can be difficult to find. KCPW-KPCW's information, for instance, is listed as Community Wireless of Park City. KRCL is Listeners' Community Radio of Utah. KUER is part of the University of Utah filings.