KQED

Are used to listen to morning edition on the way to school, and I loved the personal opinion and pieces that listeners could relate to kqed as I listen to it on the way to school in my household days when it was playing on 88.5 FM here in San Francisco. Then, over the years, I would always catch Science Friday with Ira Flatow, and now I still like to listened Robert Krulwich, who used to be on Radiolab journalist who still churns-out scientific loot now and then on Saturday’s and Sunday’s. Last, but not least, I do love the radio puzzles, and will short with NYC; more than that I always look forward to wait wait don’t tell me as it airs on Chicago’s, Public radio, PRI, and then again there is also this American life which will always be a quaking, moving masterpiece of American technology meets drama, meets reverie and sly, witty appeal [And A+ / applause].

I like this station because it provides you with information you would not normally hear on other stations! I listened to it ,before, I head out on the road, to find out, how the traffic is moving. Also? I listings to the different guest that appear on the program sharing how they, were able to write a book. This stations gives points of view that is thought provoking and enlightening!

I use the app daily to catch the live stream in my car, so this may actually be the most-used app on my phone. It's also great that I'm just a couple of clicks away from their podcasts without having to leave the app. As someone who left the Bay Area many years ago, I need my KQED fix and this app has me covered!

Not easy to find past shows and also not easy to fast

I’ve been a fan, listener, viewer and member since 2004. It is great to see all the app improvements over the years, including the addition of the pledge free stream. Thanks for all the fact based journalism KQED team

I can’t get the Kqed app to listen to as I always have. The circle just spins endlessly and drains my battery. Please help me correct this problem. I’m frustrated. Elizabeth Rounkle. Long time sustaining member

I am a multi-decades long fan of KQED and it’s programming. But this app is borderline unusable for me. The problems have only gotten worse over the year but include: 1.No evidence way to change output source 2.disconnects often (I’ve seen this across multiple years, multiple networks, multiple phones). Recovery from disconnects is about 50/50 at best 3.no way to “go live”. Rewinding to an earlier point never, ever works right. It goes to the wrong place and I have to close and reopen the app to get my stream working again. I gave it two stars because I love KQED as an organization. If this was any other organization I would give it one star.

The app quits frequently for no apparent reason. When I go to restart it, there’s a message “tap to restart”….which is directly in the way of the “start” button. Please eliminate this message, we ALL know how to start/restart the intuitive app. Thank you.

KQED is vital in keeping us connected to the world around us. We can understand how and why events affect our lives.

The app has good features but controlling them is impossible. Love being able to rewind and go forward but app view is often out of sync or control or playback just stops.

It’s the companion of most of my day. Source of information, inspiration and provokes constant curiosity.

I finally terminated my 40 some odd year sustaining membership due to this miserable app. It quits several times an hour and when it restarts it plays the commercials for its sponsors. I am now tossing my support to Cap Radio which has a much more robust and reliable app. KQED, you need to fix this app! The complaints about it go back years with no resolution.

Lots of small and large local public radio stations are available on CarPlay, I’m surprised that the new KQED app upgrade didn’t include this. For being the center of the Bay Area - tech universe they’re way behind the times.

The new app is a drastic improvement. It’s much more user friendly. 5⭐️

Very annoying! I’ve replaced the app with a new one but it’s still doing the same thing- not going to the right page so I can’t set it.

KQED seriously needs to upgrade this app. It keeps failing right in the middle of programs. Please do something, KQED!

Pretty straightforward app to listen to KQED podcasts! The app interface is clean and user friendly.

When I’m far from home - Japan, New York, Texas….and I need to touch base with home - KQED is my solution.

Listen to it when I go to sleep and when I wake up. I love the voices of the moderators. They are very soothing.

Had to stop listening this morning as each time the NPR feed aired it would repeat the last thirty or so seconds.

It’s disconcerting that the live stream is about 2-3 minutes behind live radio. Other than that, the app is great, and I love KQED and NPR.

What an amazing app!!

About every two weeks or so, the app stops working. I have to delete and reinstall the app.

This app is consistently 2-3 min behind from real live. Also, if you pause/stop the stream accidentally- you kinda get a reset (either dropping pledge free aspect or rerunning ads)

Very buggy. Quits frequently with poor or no recovery. Sleep timer does not show up on some devices. Just really poor app. Barely works. Stick to radio if you want to listen. Worst app since my iPhone 1.

I downloaded this app hoping to listen QKED radio live. Unfortunately it does not have that option.

The streaming function is frequently off-line. It requires a delete and new sign in. In order to restore service.

The app frequently locks up. Quitting the app is required to restart it. In todays tech world it is surprising. I have been a KQED member since 1986.

Crashes, rarely opens, and often pauses for extended an time. I have to use Alexa or change channels.

This new version does not have the Airplay icon visible. Ridiculous oversight by the developer.

Doesn’t open. Won’t play on apple phone or iPad. I’ll try again next week, maybe...

Crashes frequently

since the last update the app no longer works on this ipad. please fix.

I’ve been using this app for so long I don’t remember not having it. Having KQED handy around the world is fabulous. Where ever I am I can enjoy the news or one of the many podcasts. I also use the NPR app and NPR One and until recently I preferred this app. But, the current release dies frequently. This is very frustrating, especially if the funding banner is repeated upon restart thus losing a measurable period of the broadcast. This occurred occasionally over the years but recently it can happen multiple times a day. I trust this is fixable and my fingers are crossed it will be corrected in the next release. Then it would be a 5-star app.

. . .so I could listen to KQED on my - now - daily commute on BART. I've been listening to KQED-FM for decades now and, the sample rate on this app certainly takes, otherwise, unique and highly recognizable voices, into the realm of "Glee" singers . . . . they begin to sound, ever-so-slightly the same and like everyone has a cold. I dont use any of the other aspects of the App so can't comment on those features, but after a week of using it 2X/day for my 45 minute ride, I have at least 1 dropout each day where the feed is lost and the only way to restart it is to return to the HOME screen - press LISTEN LIVE, again - and then push one of the play buttons . . .These are NOT momentary dropouts in service since the dropout will never restart on its own and for several minutes and until I restart the service by following the above sequence. Still - it is free - and I am, once again, back in touch with my friends at KQED-FM.

I use this app quite often because it’s pretty nice to be able to listen to the radio on my phone. There’s a nice big play button when you open the app, making it easy to start listening right away (of course a 3D Touch shortcut would be even better.) Aside from that much appreciated play button, the rest of the ui has looked mostly unappealing and I haven’t bothered to explore whatever else is on offer. Now here comes the major flaw; when you first start listening, there is the paid sponsorship statement of about 10 seconds or so, this isn’t that bad and not the problem here— the problem is that whenever the phone switches from LTE to WiFi, the app completely cuts the stream AND makes you listen to the sponsored statement again! This is a huge annoyance when I’m paying close attention to an interesting statement and my phone decides to switch networks. This happens a lot when pulling into the driveway and my phone pick up the WiFi. Anyway, this app is a pretty good way to get a high quality stream of KQED aside from that one annoyance. Of course, the real reason I can’t listen to the actual 88.5 FM signal is only because Apple won’t unlock the iPhone’s FM radio to developers, but that’s a different issue altogether.

I listen to KQED all the time, and would dearly love to see fixes to the below listed issues. This app has difficulty with switching between wireless networks in my home, and from wireless to cellular data. When I walk from downstairs to upstairs, I have to stop and restart the app when the phone switches networks. The app usually requires the same protocol when I leave my house and the phone switches from one of my wireless networks to cellular data. On the upside, I prefer listening to KQED on my phone (rather than my car radio) because the reception is never interrupted by static. Today, when I opened the App Store to write this review, I noticed a note that said “Fixes for iOS 10.3 available.” iOS 11.1.2 has been out for a week. Thanks for any action you can take on these issues.

I use this app every single day to listen to KQED through my headphones. The only issue I have with it is that I've never been able to get the alarm function to work properly because I would love to wake up to KQED but every time I set the alarm and it doesn't go off. If they can get that fixed it'll get a five star, until then four stars, love the app.

When it runs correctly, this is a great app! The ability to stream a live radio feed without a wireless access point is easily my favorite part. But this app is really finicky! It will lose it's live feed often and without warning and almost never reconnects on it's own. My phone is my primary method of listening to KQED and it concerns me that the app can be so unstable. And it certainly adds another level of irritation during a Donation Month when you have trouble connecting to regular programming and then being asked for money. I would like to donate more to KQED, but I would like to see this app improved substantially before I do.

The app works great if you’re sitting in one place. However, the app continually connects and disconnects, making you listen to the introductory sponsorship message. I often listen to KQED as I am riding my bicycle and I’m having to listen to the sponsorship message what seems like every five minutes. It’s quite annoying. I don’t have this issue with my Pandora app, I never hear interruption whatsoever. Hopefully improvements can be made to stay better connected or buffer more data so there are less interruption. I have read other reviews with the same complaint.

Please remove the Warning pop-up that appears every single time you open the app. It's annoying to see this message about an unnecessary alarm function that I don't want. The Warning modal should pop up only once, then never again. Thank you in advance for making this revision, and making the app less annoying to use. I use this app every morning to listen to KQED. It's really handy to listen with my phone; in fact this app is the only way I listen--carry it with me all over the house as I get ready in the mornings.

You’d think that the flagship station out of the Bay Area would have an app that reflected the best of Silicon Vally tech but you’d be wrong. I put up with this only for Forum live which I still love even after moving out of state. Every time I move away from the app-even if it’s for 1/2 a sec- the darn thing reboots. And I have to listen to the “sponsorship” message for the umpteenth time which inevitably means I miss something important. Seriously, with all the $ you all raise and all the expertise at your fingertips Please do something about this app. Stop abusing your listeners.

I can't listen anymore. It won't load! I open radio, then click on a link like CA Report. It completely shuts down the app every time. For the past two weeks or more since the new iOS update for iPhones I haven't been able to hear the CA Report! Extremely frustrating to miss my daily routine after so many years of support. Come on KQED get an update already. I've been sending multiple reports daily for several weeks (every time it shuts down when I reopen the app it generates a message to report the unexpected shut down of the app)! By now you should have a solution!!

Nobody carries portable radios around anymore. If KQED wants its listeners to remain engaged in their programming, it needs a reliable live streaming app. If bandwidth is the issue then prioritize connections for active members. That said, the current user experience is terrible. The stream drops regularly and when it cannot reconnect it just repeats the Barracuda sponsorship message ad nauseum. So now the very idea of Barracuda networks annoys the hell out of me. I'm certain Barracuda doesn't want to be associated with feelings of frustration and annoyance, but here we are. A session variable should be able to determine when to play the sponsorship announcement without being obnoxious. Furthermore, if the live stream manages to reconnect, it is preceded by a sharp, painful scratching noise that makes me give up on the whole thing. I love KQED programming, but hate this app. Unfortunately that means I won't be listening to KQED during my train and bicycle commute.

I like to listen to NPR on my iPhone on WiFi at home. This app used to work fine in the past. But it doesn’t seem to be compatible with the most recent iOS. It crashes after a few minutes every time I use it. Error message: “There was a problem downloading the audio.” Good grief! You’d think an an from the tech capital of the world would work better. I searched for an alternative and found that the Capital Public Radio app, from a Sacramento-based station, works fine. Now I can listen to NPR without problems. Wish I didn’t lose the Bay Area news, though.

This otherwise great app seems to have install/update problems. One of my most used and favorite apps, but broke after 1.0.4 update. Initially it stalled every few seconds during video play. Eventually it would only show splash screen for a sec and then close. Finally got it to work again after a number of deletes and reinstalls, but then it fails again. Suggest reboot AFTER deleting app and before new install to make sure all old data is cleared.

I really only have one complaint with this app. When you first open it there's a prompt to give it GPS access. Why would it even need that information? No clue. Denying this access results in the app showing you an alert that you need to go into settings to enable location services EVERY TIME YOU OPEN THE APP. I've been using the app for months now and have had to dismiss this alert a hundred times now. Very annoying.

The original version had corrupt schedules, and radio streaming was spotty. The new version has no schedules for tv and radio, and the streaming is just as bad. Frankly, the most frequent use for me is checking the TV and radio program schedules..."what's on tonight?" The app was the first stop, and the website scheduling is very onerous to navigate. But in the old app, multiple programs would show up for the same time slot, so it was very confusing. Now there is no schedule, which is equally frustrating. C'mon, KQED, as the most listened to / watched NPR / PBS station in the US, it should be easy to put schedules on an app.

I recently upgraded my phone and my iOS, which coincides with my beloved KQED app having intermittent streaming interruptions. It happens when I switch apps, when the phone goes into sleep mode, and sometimes for no apparent reason. My NPR News app used to have similar problems (though there were some important differences), but now it works well. Perhaps the respective developer teams could put their heads together!

I like leaving a dedicated app for KQED that doesn't constantly give a 15-30 sec sponsorship statement every time it reconnects like TuneIn Radio does. But, the connection often hangs up and doesn't reconnect - especially when you transition from WiFi to cellular. When you go to press play to get it going again, nothing happens. Very frustrating. Improve the connection reliability and I will gladly give it 5 stars.