NPR.org — National Public Radio’s website — just won the Peabody award for distinguished broadcast journalism.

Not what you’d expect from a website. But then, NPR.org isn’t just any website, just as its parent isn’t just any radio network. Both give customers what they want and need, how and when they want it. Classic, yet current in every way.

NPR.org offers news, music, concerts, NPR shows, interviews, widgets on your desktop, features about culture, and more. Just no commercials.  The Peabody folks praised the “topically boundless” nature of the site: “A whole lot of things considered, from ‘South Park’ to North Korea, make this one of the great one-stop websites.”

“This award reflects more than the appeal and usefulness of NPR’s website,” writes Matthew Lasar in Ars Technica (4/2/10). “It’s recognition that NPR represents one of broadcast radio’s few success stories over the last decade.”

NPR has avoided the bankruptcy fate of thousands of stations struggling to stay relevant in the Internet age, and in fact is growing. Due in part to interest in the 2008 election, it now boasts a weekly audience of 27.5 million, an increase of 7%. According to Ars Techica, more than 900 FM radio stations are either NPR affiliates or run NPR programming.

NPR stays current by such moves as developing the Public Radio Player for the iPhone – which 2.5 million subscribers use to select the shows they want to listen to (and when) at hundreds of public radio stations. Pretty nifty.

There’s also a mobile NPR.org (m.npr.org) and a news app for Google’s new Android. Last week, NPR debuted a way for other media services to post content to NPR as well as receive it. Most recently: content and tools for the iPad.

What a great website, company, and service to the nation and our intensely interesting, and interested, world. Tune in today!