97.1 The Fan

I’m a huge Ohio State Buckeyes fan and I live in Arkansas and I’m a very long time listener. I listen to the station at least 6 days a week for work and listening to games. This is ridiculous how it is it’s the 21st century and this app still crashes and says I have no network service and I’m in NWA where the cell phone service is really good. I don’t understand this people and the same ole same ole commercials come on folks FIX THE ISSUES.!!!

I came to leave a review on how terrible this streaming app is, but a simple search shows that many people have already stated the obvious. A review from TWO YEARS AGO states the same issues that are STILL currently happening. I try to enjoy listening while doing yard work or other misc. tasks but become too frustrated with how often the service is dropped. In comparison, I have not had this issue with any other podcast or listening service. Only this one. Mowing the yard? How about listening to the same ads over and over and over again. Receive a phone call, even if you don’t answer it? Congrats, you get to listen to more ads before you get to listen to any content. Accidentally tap on something that has sound? More ads for you. Hit pause briefly to answer someone? Ads, ads, and more ads. Ironically here in central Ohio you’ll get to listen to many ads from… Michigan? If I could I would rate this with a -1 star. Going on 2 years of a pandemic where many people work from home and this app has consistently been terrible. The hosts have mentioned that the app has been updated multiple times to fix issues, yet none of the issues have been fixed. This is utterly pathetic and sad that a radio station takes such little pride in what they put out to their listeners. Do better!

I listened to the 97.1 stream directly from their webpage for months with the stream constantly dropping. If you get 30 minutes of uninterrupted content it’s been a great day of using their stream. I tried using TuneIn but the results were the same. So I decided to try this app thinking surely they wouldn’t create an app that doesn’t work. But alas I was wrong. This station’s streaming service is quite an embarrassment especially given the size of the company. This isn’t some startup. This is the largest station in central Ohio. “The Home of the Buckeyes”. I can’t imagine that the people in charge of the station would be ok with their over the air signal constantly being turned off, then restarting and playing ads over and over with little or no actual content being delivered. However, for whatever reason, this seems to be perfectly acceptable for their streaming services. From what I can gather from the comment section here and from the app ratings this has been an ongoing thing, not something new. Until the station takes more pride in the product it is providing, this issue will never be fixed. They really should be embarrassed.

You have to close the advertisement before it starts playing content. Which means that every time you stop playing, like if you have an alarm, sometimes Twitter will stop it, you have to open up the app just to hit closed on the advert, especially painful if you are driving. I had people from Germany working with me for a month, I guess it’s always listening because it gave me an advertisement in German, which I had to look up what the German word for closed is for it to start playing the shows. I’m surprised I put up with it but I do like most of the shows of this station it’s just the app is garbage

I am a Buckeye who has lived far away from Columbus for years and I love keeping up with my team through The Fan radio shows. This app has always been terrible and seems to be getting worse! Constantly buffering, shutting off and then going to a commercial…over and over. I’ve reinstalled multiple times this week with no better luck. The shows are getting worse too — Bishop and FRIENDS — can you please shell out some money for some actual radio talent or athletes??? Bishop and his friends are neither. But that’s besides the point for this review. Please fix this!!!!!!

I long to hear ted’s soft nasally voice whisper sweet sexy nothings into my moist ear holes. I’m not sure if it’s part of the program plan already but I think the addition of Paul Keels would be a fantastic piece for perverTED. But he’s not a co-host or even allowed to talk he’s just there to go mmmm and oh yesss whenever Predator Ted is being incredibly sexy. This would definitely add to the Lake Tahoe that is currently developing on top of my loins just thinking about it.

Like the title says, it’s a good upgrade over the previous version of the app. However, and I’m not sure if it’s relevant to this forum, the new update caused a bug when asking Alexa/smart speaker to “play 97.1 the fan.” I don’t think this is an error on Amazon’s side so I’m posting here. When going through the Alexa app and starting the fan manually, there are no issues— only when giving the voice command.

I like these apps designed for particular radio stations, but whoever created this one for 97.1 The Fan, is either not checking for errors or doesn’t care. The app freezes for no apparent reason, when you take it off pause you hear the “brought to you by” Commercial again, this happens when you pause it as well, I may just start listening to the podcast a day late to avoid the problems, but would prefer to listen live. This could be a real problem come Football season, as well as a current issue for people listening to Jackets or Crew games

This app is constantly interrupted when streaming the local radio shows, with network connection to the station. I have other apps I stream music and podcasts from that never have an issue and can be played all day with out interruptions. For some reason it feels like every five minutes the app drops the stream and then can’t reconnect for 10 minuets and then plays for 5 seconds and drops out for another ten minuets. Terrible and would really appreciate it if the IT or app developers at the station or wherever could figure out the issue.

Love this app. Use it every day all day when I’m at work. One issue I have with the app is it won’t allow me to download the podcasts to listen offline on my phone. With my job, there are days that I work in an area that doesn’t get good credit service but I use to be able to listen to the shows from the day before even if I didn’t have cell service. For some reason that has changed. Would love to see that fixed

This should be embarrassing for such a large company. Like other reviewers, I have found the entire streaming service for this station almost entirely unlistenable. This direct and branded app is further punishment (at least in iOS) to would be consumers. Constant stream drops, local ads randomly playing over content... it’s an absolute mess. A dreadful mess. I caught A snippet of host B.Carp the other day complaining of his own experience with this app, only to have the stream dropped mid-story. By the time I got thru the startup ad (which always plays flawlessly), his story was over.

Friends, ignore all reviews from 2020 and before. They just relaunched the app and it is a monumental improvement. There’s an up-to-date program list, a catalog of all shows and podcasts, and the ability to switch among the three streams (FM, AM, and HD3). Most importantly, it’s a fast, responsive, and stable app finally!

I use this app all the time to listen to the shows as I live out of state. It was previously very bad, but the new version 7 update has been amazing for me. I no longer lose connection like I used to and the sound quality seems to have improved too.

The app is a joke. They consistently have issues with the stream dropping. It’s been this way for months. Show some pride in your product and fix the issues. This app is filled with reviews with the same problem. I’ve tried other apps and they all have the same problem with your stream. It’s 2019 and you can’t figure out something as simple as a basic audio stream over the internet. I listen to plenty of online radio streams, of which all seem to work just fine....except for you.

This app has been like this for awhile. It constantly crashes, and then when it picks back up, it plays at least 2 advertisements, even if the actual show isn’t on a break. It’s a let down, because this has always been by far my favorite station, and now that I recently moved to Alabama, I can’t listen to the actual radio station, all I have is this crappy app, and I’m constantly missing out on content because it’s constantly crashing, and then playing ads. please please PLEASE FIX!!! :(

This app constantly drops the stream for no reason, fails to load without explanation (but still is able to play the load-in ads every time without fail), and worst yet- it will randomly play ads during the broadcasts. But it doesn’t pause and break into the audio. Nope. It plays the ad and steam at the same time, so its two different voices at the same time. Often times playing at a higher volume than the broadcast audio. Terrible app. I hope who ever is in charge of this gets fired.

This app delivers an awful streaming service experience. Whenever you switch your phone from Wi-Fi to cellular or vice versa, the app immediately believes you need to hear an advertisement. These ads are annoying, repetitive and too long, while you wait and miss content. Oh, and even when you don’t switch between Wi-Fi and cellular, the app says I think you need another ad! Just random ad drops for no reason.

I feel like someone made this as a high school science project without ever really taking a coding class. It crashes so often. I travel a decent amount and want to listen to my home town sports radio and there are times it works for like 30 min without crashing and I’m overjoyed when that happens. But it’s rare. Be better

Worst app on the App Store? Probably. Issues already addressed by other users but… Switch from network to WiFi? Frozen, repeated commercials when finally resumes Leave wifi range and switch to network? Same as above. Press pause (well, now it’s a stop button)? Same as above. This usually requires additional step of swiping app closed and relaunching to even get to the commercials. No other streaming app has a problem continued service when switching data sources or pausing. Oh, almost forgot…connect to car stereo? Same as above. Put headphones (AirPods) in, seamlessly continues…take them out? Have to swipe closed and relaunch to get to work again.

It’s not even playing the Rose bowl even though it says it’s playing the rose bowl. Just playing ESPN radio stuff. Abysmal app which is unfortunate because they have a lot of radio talent I’d like to hear. I also don’t appreciate having to listen to an ad just to start the radio and every time the app crashes ( which is frequent) I have to listen to another ad to start listening

The app has so many bugs that I don’t think the developer actually tests the app themselves. Such as the stream dropping and not restarting so the app has to be reset then the commercials play again. Then I just had to delete the app and redownload it because I couldn’t access the old recordings of the different shows. The app could be awesome but just doesn’t have the support to be.

Love this radio station. Only reviewing because I want to listen more but the app is currently very frustrating. The commercials when opening the app are ridiculous (ones you have to manually close to skip and the auto play ones). App crashes and then makes you go through the commercials again when you reopen.

GD worst app ever!!!! Advertisements will literally take over screen to the point where you have to delete app and then re download. And that is just one issue. No joke this happened. I used this app to listen to live radio. The app messed with my phone volume and I missed phone calls and text alerts. Even with volume all the way up.

I keep getting an error message “Network Alert: problem connecting to the internet. Please check your connection and try again.” I agree with other reviewers that this app was problematic even when I could get it working. The feed frequently drops. I use the Simple Radio app, and it’s much better to connect to your feed. Please fix your app

See review from Bentzie99 dated January 18. Copy & paste here. It’s frustrating how often it cuts out and I’m sick of hearing Little Animal’s voice on a commercial endlessly when it picks up again. He isn’t in Columbus anyway.

I am surprised with all the negative reviews. I live in New Mexico and this app has been nothing but incredible for me. I listen to it everyday at work with no problems.

App tends to play for a bit then will pause and not restart, if it does I get the into commercials again!! Doesn’t matter if I’m on WiFi at home or work or if I’m running it on a string signal from Verizon!! And I have a 6 month old iPhone, so don’t tell me it’s my $1000 device Very annoying! I’m listening to it cuz I enjoy The Fan and can’t carry a radio around at work and other places. Just trying to understand why there’s very few updates and why it’s been this way for so long!! Don’t have any trouble streaming audio from other apps I use. They seem to have gotten it right! Can you???

Absolutely love this Buckeye station!! Every show is different but all content is the same all Buckeyes!!

I love this network and all the shows but this app crashes after 10 min of listening every time! In the 2 years I’ve had the app I’ve always experienced this. It gets very annoying and makes it not worth listening unless you have all the time in the world to restart it every time

Used the app everyday for a long time. Suddenly I started getting message about bad network connection and it closes. Have tried several times over the past few months to delete and redownload but it doesn’t work. Very frustrating. Wish they would fix it

I sure would love to listen to the content rather than having “my new and improved the fan app” crashing mid segment sending me to a loop of commercials. Needs work and is quite embarrassing that over a year in that this app is so problematic and to be honest...basic...

This app is aggravating. I am a big fan of the shows and try to listen every day. But I’ve had it with this app. It pauses constantly and loses connection regardless of a great internet connection. It will play commercials over the broadcast audio which is so annoying. And it will cut out causing you to miss out on broadcasts.

Not much more to say. App keeps crashing while streaming and I open another app.

This app constantly freezes during live streams. Don’t get me wrong, I love the shows but it constantly crashes. If you switch car radio sources to avoid listening to the same commercial over and over and over and over, you have to reboot the app. So disappointing.

This app is trash! It frequently quits playing for no reason, and when you restart it it’ll have no trouble playing the advertisements. Also doesn’t allow you to transfer between apps on your phone and keep playing. Very poorly designed!

The only thing this app does effectively is play adds. So frustrating to use, I love the radio station unfortunately it’s hard to listen with this app because it cuts in and out all day long and plays replays adds every time it cuts out. SMH….. so frustrating

This is the worst app I’ve ever downloaded. It never works. The only part of the app that does work is the advertisements. Who’s ever job it is to maintain this app should quit their job immediately. I will now go out of my way to avoid every company mentioned in all of their advertisements. Go to ....

I have had nothing but trouble with this app for approx 3 months, so I get on to see if anyone else is having trouble also and I read nothing but horrible reviews for more than a year. Apparently nobody is reading these reviews or they need a app creator to fix the bugs. Get with the program guys. O-H...

I was hoping since there was an improvement to the app since all these reviews are terrible. Nope. Downloaded it this afternoon, and 4 hours later, still refuses to open. Telling me no internet connection. So, I deleted it. Why is this even available if it cannot be used?

I love listening from Florida. Unparalleled sports radio. However, the app typically prevents me from listening and it rarely works, often closes/glitches or says I do not have an internet connection. Wish they would just stream through one of the larger radio apps.

Sure would be nice to listen to a game on “the home of the crew”. If this was an OSU issue, it would have been fixed by now. But since it’s not, I guess I’ll just have to listen to some crappy ESPN content. Thanks a bunch !!

This might be the worst mobile app in the history of the internet. Constantly loses audio connection and plays ads incessantly, even over the live broadcast. Audio streams for 30 seconds and cuts out, and won’t reconnect. Please fix.

This app is nearly useless. The feed stops for no reason every 1-2 minutes. Unbelievable that this type of issue would be seemingly unfixable. The station and the author of the app should be embarrassed.

The only thing worse than hearing the ads from out of state is hearing why people took the shot in Michigan and how to get a medical marijuana card. If that’s what you want to listen to…this apps for you.

I love listening to the station but the app has never worked on my iPhone 8 since day one of downloading the app. Have uninstalled many times and dowloaded again. Doesn’t matter if I’m on WiFi just doesn’t work. Psh! Unreal!

Just in time for football season, the app for the Buckeyes’ flagship station won’t open. The error says there’s something wrong with MY internet connection. Sorry, wrong! It’s too bad, too. I enjoy Common Man and T-Bone almost every day on my drive home.

So anytime there’s a live sports game on and you try and listen it just plays ESPN radio and not the live event. OSU or CBJ games, don’t waste your time downloading to try and listen.

Bonus show was hilarious! Need another!

This app won't open. I continuously receive an error message, "Network Alert - Problem Connecting ...", however, I have tried both over WiFi and Cellular.

This could be the worst app I use. It constantly drops and it makes it so frustrating to try and listen. I’ve given this app plenty of time but it never improves. 1 Star in generous.