As a High Fidelity member i really want this to work! This thing never works. Locks up, drops the stream about every 10 min, and keeps running even after i close it. I end up atreaning WNYC instead. Uninstalling for now.

The 30 second fast forward or rewind feature never works and I have to restart it from the beginning. I even updated the app after initially having downloaded a year or more ago and it still does the same thing.

Even after the update, I am still having problems with the start/stop/jump ahead glitches others have reported. And now the app will not close & I have to force stop every time I use it. Love WBEZ but this app is disappointing.

I get 10 minutes of a program, then it stops and plays a recorded message and then repeats the process ad nauseum until I give up and put on Pandora. I love WBEZ but this ap is awful. Edit 5/13: this week it has had a much steadier stream. I don't know if it was updated recently but I have noticed a change. It will still stop, but not as much as before.

My big complaint is the amount of data consumed for a just-audio streaming app. I do not have unlimited data, and I use it while walking my dog, and it consumes more data than say a youtube video/audio stream. This limits the number of times I can use it. This is only audio, data usage should be low.

This is a great idea but the Android app only sporadically works for me. Most of the time it simply tries to load. The in-app "help" feature seems to have an error report form but it has not resulted in the release of a usable version.

Martin Nelson hit the nail on the head... especially the constant station ID repeat everytime the stream has a glitch. WBEZ should understand; A. I'm a High Definition subscriber and appreciate the concept behind the WBEZ app. However, there's an old adage that says "you get what you pay for", and this app proves it...it's Junk. B. I can get all the programs I really want from podcasts. So, if you think pushing this particular free app, repeating ads everytime the stream starts/REstarts is a good marketing strategy, think again. Using this app is an excercise in frustration.

I am using it because I am temporarily away from the Chicago area. I will join the crowd by saying that the random "welcome" messages that keep popping up are annoying - sometimes they interrupt the live stream at inopportune times. Recently, I discovered that I need to 'force stop" to get it to stop running, simply closing the screen does not work.

The three stars is a little generous but I am an npr junkie and use this app every day. I agree with the others that the sudden drops in playback are definitely an issue. I also can't stand how it continues to run in the foreground, this is dumb. My main gripe with this app the the 30 second rewind/fast forward functionality. This is a terrible user experience. If a stream drops, I have to tap that button enough times to get to 40 mins which is infuriating. You should be able to scrub through the timeline just like any other audio app worth its salt. Absolutely great idea, but the implementation needs improvement.

It never fully closes on my android devices, even after I attempt a force stop. It also has serious stability issues. Uninstalling for now.

The app runs...and...runs...and there's no way to stop it! It's very annoying to have to restart your phone to get the thing to stop.

Love Wbez, My Father has listened in for years. I really enjoy this station. Like Father like Son. Thank You For Everything Chicago. We love you. Smooth Jazz Was My Favorite!

FURTHER UPDATE: On the hour and the half hour, a recording comes on with a station ID. This is required of broadcast stations, though I have no idea if they have to put it on apps that already have a recording of the station ID from the broadcast. But fine, WBEZ wants or needs to pause to say hey. The problem here is it then jumps ahead to the live broadcast. So if I started ten minutes after the hour to listen to Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me from the beginning (a feature the WBEZ app proudly advetises), on the half hour it jumps ahead to live and I miss 10 minutes. Then on the hour, another station ID and we skip to the next program. And there's no rewind, only a jump back to the start of this or an earlier show. I now feel I've devoted more time to pointing out the flaws in this app than was spent developing it. Sorry developer. Man, I wish I liked this app. I listen to WBEZ all the time, I'4m a High Fidelity subscriber and I live just far enough away to not have solid radio reception. But the app is so flawed it almost causes me to give up on the station when I can't get it on my radio. It drops out frequently even when I have a very solid wifi connection. And then, when it reconnects, I have to sit through station ID and commercials. Then I've missed part of the show. And if it hasn't dropped out, it will pause for station ID even though station IDs are already in the broadcast. And then, if I have paused the show, on the hour (the actual hour, not the hour in programming), we jump to the next program even if I'm not done with the one I'm listening to. And, to add to all this, it doesn't offer pledge-free programming and WBEZ doesn't mention this on the air. Pbbbbt. Update: with the latest version (as of May 2017), there seems to be no way to quit it on my Android other than going to the Apps setting and shutting it down from there. It's actually getting worse.

One of the worst apps I've ever seen. Fails at the basics. I shutter to think of how much donor money was dropped on this mess.

Love it. Do not have issues with dropping after 10 min anymore. The 30 sec for/back skip feature on episode details screen is awesome.

The app doesn't stop. No stop button in the app. You have to go to apps and do a force close. Fix this!

Not what i thought

Super glitchy for example the live stream frequently cuts out for several minutes before resuming and promptly cutting out again to rejoin the live stream. This problem is unrelated to ISP and seems to only occur on the Android version. This glitch along with other glitches make the app unusable. Would give less stars but I still love WBEZ.

I have a terrible time with this app on my Android phone. It constantly stops, frequently after less than 30 seconds. It doesn't ever last more than a few minutes

WBEZ is great but this app isn't. One big problem I have is that it sometimes decides to play at about half volume. Plugged into my portable speaker, I can't hear it clearly at work when it does this. Another big problem is data usage. I listened to about four hours today and burned over half a gig. My work doesn't have WiFi so I'm gonna run outta data before the week if I keep using this app. Are the Pritzkers gonna throw down another generous donation to fix this app? My ten bucks a month isn't gonna be enough.

It constantly cuts out and restarts. I have used it for years, and I can't believe that they can't get it working properly in all that time. I love NPR, and wbez, but the app reliability is terrible.

This app is horrible! It continuously stops in the middle of stories and takes too long to reload. Very frustrating!

Streaming constantly stopping. I only listen on the app and it's becoming almost unlistenable. I am a WBEZ member that is cancelling their monthly membership to try to get someone to look into this.

The app is nice as a catalog, but it is really inconvenient for fast forwarding a show to a specific time segment. If the app needs to buffer, it often just starts the program over. Other times, the app seems to be unable to keep live streaming of the show without constant buffering.

Stick to the radio for live streaming! The content of the app is wonderful, since it's WBEZ. But, as many reviewers have noted, the live stream is super glitchy. It constantly cuts out and sometimes doesn't restart until you've forgotten it was playing at all. Worse, every time it restarts it plays a welcome message that often includes a sponsorship, which means I sometimes hear three or four ads in a space of two minutes. I do use it reliably for listening to prior broadcasts, although the navigation feature is terrible (you can only fast forward 30 seconds, and the app fairly regularly restarts you at the beginning of the broadcast). This app is a missed opportunity and ends up being more frustrating than it's worth. I'm hoping all these poor reviews from otherwise devoted WBEZ listeners and members like myself make a difference!

Constantly stops. This app is terrible!!! I just want my WBEZ!!! I'm streaming with Radio FM. Much better already. Sorry WBEZ

It stops playing very frequently. Why? I just want my Wbez. :(

This app constanly stops and has to reloads, very frustrating

App keeps crashing in the middle of streams.

Barely works. I can stream Netflix movies smoothly, but this app can not stream just audio on the same connection.

I like the ability to pull up previous broadcasts is very nice. The links to more stories is also nice. There is one BIG fix that needs to happen. The stream is lost when your phone jumps to a different network, tower or wifi connection. This is not a problem for other streaming programs and it would be awesome if this problem can be fixed.

Keeps stopping I've used this app a for a while as my car's radio won't pick up signal. Unfortunately, after my phone (nexus 6P), updated to Android 7, it now stops every few minutes just randomly. I'm extremely disappointed that it's no longer working as well... I just want my WBEZ!

Terrible performance on what is already a widely solved technical feature (streaming). Takes forever to start up audio, stops frequently even without loss of bandwidth. Very brittle app. Quite disappointing.

Buffering is terrible. During 40 mins of listening, buffering happened 6 times. And every time, the 'thank you for listening, we'll now return you to our program is process' message is sooooooo long that I miss more from the message than from the initial glitch. Please fix both of these because I love WBEZ.

Sound cuts out. There's no way to shut off the app. Today I paused to make a call then tried to go back to listen and my phone froze. I rebooted the phone and still no luck. This app needs a lot more work.

Nice design, poor performance. Every time I use this app, either to livestream or replay, playback stops for no reason. Will continue to use Stitcher instead, though I will give this another shot if improvements are made.

Poor design, poor performance. But a very useful product, time shifting the radio. Really should have the pledge free stream.

Stops streaming every 5 or 10 seconds Stops every 10 seconds. My phone is a Samsung Note 5. This app needs more work.

I wish this mobile app were, you know, more mobile. It constantly drops in places where other streaming services don't. I was so excited to be able to listen Morning Edition and All Things Considered on the train. Now I'm just disappointed and only half informed because I'm only getting bits and pieces of news stories.

You can not use this app to listen to wbez. It stops playback every few minutes, gives the sponsor announcement, and then resumes playing. Incredibly annoying and poorly implemented for what is supposed to be a streaming app.