# WFAE Public Radio App — user reviews > 64 indexed App Store user reviews of WFAE Public Radio App by University Radio Foundation, Inc., rated 4.30/5 from 128 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wfae-public-radio-app/id430173841/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wfae-public-radio-app/id430173841.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 88 · 4★ 17 · 3★ 8 · 2★ 5 · 1★ 10 ## What do users think of WFAE Public Radio App? Overall sentiment: mixed **Pros** - 👍 Easy to use - 📰 Great news source - 🎵 Access to jazz - 🌍 Works abroad - ✅ Reliable performance - 🎧 On-demand listening - 💡 Informative content - 🚀 Seamless app experience - 👍 User-friendly interface - ✨ Good local news coverage - 📻 Live stream availability - 💯 High quality content - 👍 Good for working/traveling - 🌟 Unbiased world view - 📻 Always available - 👍 Good compatibility - 📰 Great for keeping up - 👍 User friendly - 🚀 Reliable app - 👍 Great content - 👍 Works well - 👍 Love the app - 👍 Great app - 👍 Great source of news - 👍 Good radio - 👍 Great app - 👍 Love listening - 👍 Great app - 👍 Great app - 👍 Terrific app - 👍 Pretty good - 👍 Use it often - 👍 Great app - 👍 Love this app - 👍 Great app - 👍 Does the job! - 👍 Better than Ever - 👍 Very good App - 👍 Love it!! - 👍 Love this app! - 👍 Thanks - 👍 NPR Rocks! - 👍 Great source for news! - 👍 Great app. Great local news cover for Charlotte NC - 👍 One click, and here comes the news! - 👍 Susan in South Charlotte - 👍 Great app - 👍 Love the app. - 👍 Great app! - 👍 Great - 👍 Great way to listen & keep up - 👍 Wonderful for news and favorite shows. - 👍 Always Available **Cons** - 🐛 App crashes frequently - 🐛 App freezes/locks up - 🐛 Buffering issues - 🐛 Randomly stops working - 🐛 Fails to load randomly - 🐛 App is unreliable - 🐛 App is garbage - 🐛 Continually drops - 🐛 Annoying ad at startup - 🐛 App turns itself on at random - 🐛 Updates cause crashes - 🐛 No longer streams live - 🐛 Stops working - 🐛 Does not advance through stories - 🐛 Issues with lock screen controls - 🐛 Auto-play ads/radio - 🐛 Network errors - 🐛 Hinky a lot of the time - 🐛 App is slow to keep up - 🐛 Issues with segmented shows - 🐛 Can't rewind current story - 🐛 Inconsistent performance - 🐛 Poor battery life impact **Commonly reported bugs** - Fails to load randomly via a glitch and requires app restart or system reboot - App regularly breaks down - App continually drops (on an iPhone X) - App locks up and requires complete exit and restart - Cannot pause, rewind or fast forward from the lock screen - App auto-plays ads and radio when opening, even on silent - App buffers continuously or loops audio - App spins, cuts out, stops and starts, plays 15 seconds then repeats - App doesn't have to be open to listen to radio - Live radio doesn't start automatically - Full page ad at startup is frustrating - App no longer plays live stream - App crashes upon open (iOS) - App stops working, will not override iTunes in cars - App resets to current time, cannot rewind - Archived show won't advance from one story to the next when screen is off - App crashes frequently on startup - App stops when user locks the screen - App doesn't advance through stories on 'All Things Considered' unless screen is on - App takes away ability to set sleep time, only toggle switch for 30 mins - App has 'No network' warning with strong WiFi - App turns itself on at random, even when closed - Updates cause crashes, requires delete and reinstall **Most requested features** - Dark Mode - Add NPR Hourly Newscast and Hourly Local Newscast to On Demand - Ability to pause, rewind, or fast forward from the lock screen - Fix auto-play ads and radio on app open - Allow rewinding to listen to missed parts of shows - Add ability to set sleep timer for app - Cover SC news more often - Improve coverage for SC suburbs - More balanced political spectrum - Attract the whole nation by covering all wings - Fix segmented shows not playing continuously - Reduce delay between app and radio broadcast - Add more local news coverage for SC suburbs - Option to disable live stream auto-play on app open ## Newest reviews (12 of 64) ### 4/5 — One wish/suggestion/request *2023-11-24, version 4.6.14* I wish you would add NPR Hourly Newscast and Hourly Local Newscast to your On Demand choices. ### 3/5 — Unreliable and frustrating *2020-11-13, version 4.4.68* Many times this app buffers continuously, or loops over the same audio several times before stopping to buffer. Disappointing as I love this NPR station ### 5/5 — Always good source of topics.. *2020-06-26* Always my information source of items I want be aware of. They report on a spectrum of news and give me facts I can research on other sources. ### 4/5 — Functional *2020-06-01* I like the app. I like that the app doesn’t have to be open to listen to the radio, and it’s relatively simple to try and find articles after the fact. ### 5/5 — All the nation *2020-05-18, version 4.4.35* Great but you can attract the whole nation if you try to cover all wings ### 4/5 — Live steam auto play *2020-05-11* It would be nice if the live radio doesn’t start automatically when we open the app. Sometimes we just want to read the headlines and not necessarily listen to the live stream. ### 3/5 — Hinky a lot of the time *2020-04-03, version 4.4.35* I really relied on this app for news and info. But is often not working I am deleting and reinstalling often. But that doesn’t always work. ### 5/5 — Love! *2020-03-29, version 4.4.35* Love this app! The reception is perfect and so much better than my radio. thanks! ### 5/5 — Well performing app *2020-03-27, version 4.4.35* Five stars ### 3/5 — Full page ad at startup? *2020-03-04* The full page ad that takes up the entire screen every time the app reopens is frustrating and sours part of the user experience. I understand the importance of underwriting for public radio and I don’t have issues with reasonable ad placement. However, this current ad becomes an annoyance when it forces the user experience every time the app is started and often when the app is reloaded because something else interrupted the app in the background. Keep the ad but please don’t hold the app hostage until it’s done. ### 5/5 — Very happy with this app! *2020-01-16, version 4.4.7* Does exactly what it is supposed to and not one annoying function more. ### 5/5 — Love listening *2020-01-02, version 4.4.7* I learn something new everyday ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Insensitive *2026-03-18, version 6.3.12* Completely insensitive to the millions of visually impaired and millions whose suffer from migraines triggered by bright white screens. Get Dark Mode now! ### 1/5 — App is garbage content is great *2024-06-24, version 4.6.14* Wfae needs to contract a different coder. This app is garbage and regularly breaks down. Only reason to use it is that’s all wfae has. Great station garbage app. ### 1/5 — Love WFAE Cant get the app to work! *2020-06-09, version 4.4.50* It’s the only app I use that just spins, cuts out, stops and starts, plays 15 seconds then repeats that same 15 seconds over again, and is just generally unreliable. Please fix this, listening to this in the morning while working from home is how I keep up with what’s happening in our world! Thank you! ### 1/5 — No Longer Streams Live *2020-03-12, version 4.4.35* I don’t know what y’all did but your app no longer plays live stream and it’s not available anymore. It just opens to a PRX story. ### 1/5 — Fail *2019-09-12, version 4.4.7* Stopped working several months ago. Will not override iTunes in cars. Plays the add opener, then iTunes takes back over and the WFAE app just stays stuck on the Mazda of South Charlotte add. Updated, uninstalled, reinstalled, but no joy. Uninstalled forever. Goodbye WFAE! 👋🙁 iPhone 7 Plus iOS vers 12.4.1 ### 2/5 — Too often “Network Error” *2024-12-15, version 4.6.14* Not reliable. ### 2/5 — Still needs work *2022-05-01* Have listened to and supported WFAE/WFHE for over 20 years, since I moved to NC. Programming is great, but this app still has significant issues especially every time they "upgrade." I no longer use this station as my alarm because it is so undependable and find myself listening to other stations more and more. The app continually drops (on an iPhone X) and is frustrating to no end. Locks up and have to completely exit and start again. I don't have these issues with other stations / apps. WFAE needs to get their act together as more and more listeners use an app for access. ### 2/5 — Unhappy with update *2022-03-31* I listen to WFAE a lot and enjoyed the app greatly until the latest update. I can no longer pause, rewind or fast forward from the lock screen—I have to open the app to do those things. I deleted and reinstalled the app but it didn’t help. I’m disappointed and hope they correct the issue. ### 2/5 — This app needs to be updated *2019-05-02* UPDATE: I wrote this review a week ago. Still no response to my support request. Deleting the app and reinstalling did not help. If you attempt to stream an archived show, and then turn off your screen, it won't advance from one story to the next. It will advance if you leave your screen on. If course that is annoying and has an impact on battery life. Fortunately my iPhone is not even a Year old, so my battery is still robust. The app crashes frequently when first start up to use it. After a few crashes it will stay on. This isn't every time, but more than 30% of the time. Since about ios 12, performance has dropped. The app crashes more and sometimes gives a "No network" warning, even when there is a strong Wifi signal. In the past couple of weeks the app has also stopped when the user locks the screen to the phone. It also doesn't advance through the stories on "All Things Considered" now, unless you leave the screen turned on. Some time ago, an update to this app took away the ability of the user to say the amount of time for the app to go to sleep. No you just have a toogle switch to go to sleep after 30 mins. I enjoy NPR and WFAE. I contribute monthly to help keep programming going. I've used the app for some years now, and I've found it can be slow to keep up with the times. I've also found tech support to be helpful, though it's been nearly week now since I wrote them about these issues and they have not replied. ### 3/5 — Too much noise! *2021-10-28* I would love it if WFAE would find a way to NOT auto play ads and the radio when opening the app, even when my phone is set to silent. This annoying glitch alone keeps me from opening the app to get the great local news that WFAE reports. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Great app *2025-08-29, version 4.6.14* Easy to use app to stay close to local and national objectively reported news! ### 5/5 — 10/10 *2025-08-21, version 4.6.14* 10/10 app -Mark ### 5/5 — Great App *2025-04-24, version 4.6.14* Works well ### 5/5 — Love! Love! *2024-11-23, version 4.6.14* My go-to for news and programs that educate. ### 5/5 — The news anytime, anywhere *2024-08-11, version 4.6.14* Accessibility to up to the hour news bulletin has been realized with smart phone connectivity. The app has bugs, one of which is that it fails to load randomly via a glitch and requires either an app restart or a system reboot. Unfortunately, those without the means to obtain these devices do not benefit from the advancements in technological connectivity but we are able to tune in anytime for tidbits of the global network’s current state. Our local station, WFAE, provides excellent social, economic, cultural, and entertainment content and could always use a first time donation from anyone who has the funds available to support their personal needs and wishes to purchase factual news coverage that provides fair and balanced debates related to current affairs and the nature of the struggles we face in life. Consider making a donation to this or your local NPR news station to help do your part in promoting discord between all the communities that inhabit our world today. It is one of the most valuable investments one can partake in during the confusion of market volatility and global conflict. Education and mutual respect for those with alternate beliefs will always hold a warranty of return on investments above that of zero, though those returns will rarely be that of a monetary gain. If one wishes to obtain homeostasis, one must be prepared to experience the loss of something of value in order to achieve an increase in favorability of a system that is within a chaotic state. Chaotic systems, however, tend to maintain a chaotic nature when dampening force functions are not properly scaled to bring the system to rest. Investments in these areas will most likely have diminishing returns or little or no effect if those funds are not properly focused on those that require their benefits the most. NPR is a well managed satellite project but the majority of its funding has ties to those that have failed the test of trickle down economics and sharing of wealth. It may be necessary for the management of such projects cut the ties to certain groups that invest only to promote well designed rouses that continuously challenge the completion of the separation of church and state, the abolishment of the promotion of violence against women and marginalized communities, and the worship of capital over that of human decency. We would imagine funding sources have a high variability and job security within the journalism sector has not been ideal for sometime. Perhaps the IMF in tandem with the international community could make a concerted effort to achieve an international funding goal that could maintain independence of the practice of literature in all its forms in order to promote the diffusion of free thought to those that would benefit from books, music, and video related to contemporary advances in revolutionary thought. For this we would need verifiable evidence of reproduction of favorable test results in clinical studies and trials related to socialization, medicine, and freedom from governmental over site in cases with proven results over an agreeable time frame. Also, we would need the deployment of online support that provides a reduction in robotic sub routines that have little or no value but to promote energy consumption and only cycle through small FAQ databases to achieve little more that a web of cyber grid lock and legal quagmire. This does, however, serve the means of advanced legal cyber jujitsu type tectonics and make employment a past time much like that of golf or a tournament of hearts. Perhaps hearts have been broken. But is that not the nature of a heart? To break? It could be said hearts are built to run the body and mind but they must be expected to break from time to time given a body in league with a mind would no doubt breed the emergence of a spirit and that would be another triple point that leads to psychometric nature of the system that would be ephemeral or fleeting at certain conditions and orientations. I find time and time again that a cyber proximity to them only brings more legal wording that only gives a promissory of an exponential amount of uncertainty and therefore a warranty more similar to that of a negative value than to that of a zero. Are we to pay to work to pay to lose and then pay to fight and then pay to die? Seems about right. All that has been achieved here is a zero system. It understands zero. It practices zero. And it holds zero. Zero applied even to a negatively described incline will do nothing but continue to hold zero. It appears that zero is the key and the key is nothing so don’t expect a door to open with a key you cannot even hold in your hands. The solution to a zero system in my humble opinion is to add to that system; not compound it with rate equations for it to climb from a zero. Compounding is multiplicative in nature and will bring the system to an immediate and jolting zero quite quickly. A job has expenses that apply diminishing profit rate equations to those which have no funds to buy even their necessities while those with funds exceeding reserves of small countries have rate equations that trend towards infinite wealth. And they apply their exploration and exploitation of cyber and IRL space with robotic and mechanical functions that act as a lever; not a zero. We get pay for lessons that achieve maintenance of zero. We are working harder, offsetting more and go to camps for eating things that we find on the street. Hang them upside down drooling and crying on television to finance the deployment of a laboratory that dispenses the food stuffs I have ordered and sign the certificates with a zero! ### 5/5 — thank you *2022-12-09* lately i’ve been looking at cracks in the sidewalk, feeling stuck in them. i’ve just turned 20, and i still have several years before i can begin to understand things around me; Chuck leaven’s makes things, even if there strange, simpler by playing me some nice music for the week. thanks chuck. ### 5/5 — I like getting my news from here *2022-03-02* I’m an NPR fan, so this app is a great way for me to listen to my local station. I like that when my phone is locked, there is a way to pause on the Lock Screen. Quality local news, though if you’re in the SC suburbs of Charlotte, they don’t often cover SC news. There is a station out of Columbia, SC, but it’s hard to get a signal when using a “regular” radio if you are really close to CLT. So I’ve just gotten used to WFAE and like it- the 9am and 7pm slots are interviews with locals, and it’s not just about local news, it’s with a general who’s visiting to speak at a foreign affairs conference and asking him about Ukraine, it’s with teachers talking about change that needs to happen in education, and electric cars. So interviews that would interest people even if they aren’t in the area ### 5/5 — WFAE delivers an excellent service, app works seamlessly *2021-07-16, version 4.4.68* WFAE delivers an excellent service, app works seamlessly ### 5/5 — Yee *2021-01-08, version 4.4.68* ^ ### 5/5 — Great *2020-10-12, version 4.4.50* I love the jazz option included with the great npr offerings. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-04.*