PROVIDENCE – WRNI, Rhode Island’s NPR affiliate, has become the first public radio station in the country to launch an application for the iPhone and iPod Touch that lets listeners listen to its content live.

The WRNI app allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to stream the station’s content over AT&T’s wireless network or a Wi-Fi Internet connection. It has been downloaded almost 6,000 times since debuting two weeks ago, according to Brian Stormont, whose company, Stormy Productions, developed the software on behalf of WRNI for free.

The application is simple – just a volume control and a play/stop button with WRNI’s logo – and is available for free from Apple’s new App Store, which can be accessed through the two devices or iTunes, the company’s music software program.

“In a way, this app is one way they’re working to bust the myth that public radio is staid and uptight,” said Michele Adamo, marketing director for Glad Works, the Pawtucket-based ad agency that designed the new WRNI Web site.

The new software was launched in mid-September, shortly after WRNI officially became independent of Boston University and its WBUR radio station. So far, all six users who have reviewed the application have given it five stars.

“I am absolutely thrilled to be the first NPR station in the country to provide this new technology for iPhone users around the world,” said Joe O’Connor, WRNI’s general manager. “Given that almost 1,000 people downloaded this application within 24 hours from as far away as Japan and Germany, it’s clear that there is a global and mobile demand for Rhode Island Public Radio.”

O’Connor was the one who first floated the idea of streaming WRNI’s content for free online, while Glad Works' technical director, Adam Harvey, is a devoted iPhone user. The ad agency enlisted Stormont, formed Stormy Productions last summer, to create the software. Stormont’s new company is focusing on the iPhone and Mac platforms.

Stormont worked fast — Glad Works approached him on Sept. 5, he researched the iPhone software architecture over the weekend, and the finished app was submitted to the iTunes store on Sept. 11, he said in an e-mail. Apple approved the app six days later. (Minnesota Public Radio submitted a similar program to Apple the day after WRNI sent its own.)

“Oddly, the second most popular country where downloads of the app are originating is France,” Stormont, who lives and works in Woonsocket. “I'm not quite sure why.”

Since the app was released, several other radio stations have contacted Stormont and begun negotiations to have him develop a similar program for them.

Melinda Gipson of the Newspaper Association of America highlighted the WRNI app in a blog post headlined: “Why the iPhone App Store Changes Everything.”

The app also provides another way for WRNI to expand its range as the station continues to work on expanding its signal and reaching more listeners.