During a lengthy on-air interview Tuesday, Blair Feulner, manager of KCPW and KPCW, discussed the public radio stations' finances, including his compensation package that will earn him upward of $140,000 this year.

The unprecedented discussion among Feulner; David Simmons, one of the stations' board members; and KCPW listeners followed a Salt Lake Tribune story Sunday that reported KCPW's parent group, Community Wireless of Park City, had awarded Feulner and his wife, co-manager Susan Feulner, $895,000 in connection with the sale of a Coalville radio license last year. The lump-sum payment came on top of the couple's more than $265,000 combined salary for the year. Under a contract negotiated last year, Feulner says he is paid a base salary of $140,000, plus bonuses at the board's discretion.

KCPW-KPCW's tax forms and a letter from the board president were published online at www.kcpw.org Saturday.

During the hour-and-a-half show Tuesday, the majority of callers and e-mailers praised the Feulners' work and said they were worth their pay - about $700,000 from 2001 through 2003 - for bringing quality public radio to Park City and the Wasatch Front.

"There would not be three public radio stations in Salt Lake City if Blair had not done this," said Stephen Denkers. The Denkers Family Foundation is a major KCPW supporter. "He took an entrepreneurial risk and he won. What's the problem with that?"

Another caller told Feulner: "The success of KCPW comes from you."

"They could pay all of you double what they do and it wouldn't be a problem for me," said another, who said the station was his primary news source.

But a few callers said Blair Feulner's salary, which is larger than that of managers at public radio stations many times the size of KCPW/KPCW, is a betrayal of public radio listeners and makes Feulner one of the very "fat cats" Feulner likes to lambaste.

Another e-mailer said the question is "whether that level of compensation is consistent with [KCPW/KPCW's] fundraising message of 'poor pitiful us.' We all knew Feulner was good. It's just that we thought he was more interested in the product and community good - and not so much in his compensation. Oh well, your heroes always turn out to have feet of clay."

Other callers said the Tribune story is part of a right-wing conspiracy to stifle public radio. "The fingerprints of right-wing slime are all over it," said a caller.

Feulner said later he was pleased with back-and-forth with listeners.

"I really feel like we did what we needed to do," he said. "To give the listeners a chance to ask questions and a chance to give us their feedback."

Feulner said he is proud of what he, his wife and the stations' staffs have accomplished. "I'm not apologetic at all for what I'm being paid," he said.

Interviewer Lara Jones asked Feulner if his salary is topped out. (Susan Feulner retired earlier this year.)

"Yeah, there's a [4 percent] cost of living increase built into it, but that's it."

But Feulner later explained, "Maybe three years from now, if we were showing really significant gains in audience and revenue, the board at its discretion could hand me a bonus."

glenwarchol@sltrib.com