Michigan Public Reviews

Michigan Public Radio apparently needed to justify the existence of a marketing team who thinks simplifying themselves to “Michigan Public” will somehow enhance their branding.

It hasn’t.

Instead, it’s made MichiganPublic impossible to find via the most logical keyword. I’m sure a new team will be installed in 2-3 years whereupon they will change it back.

Disappointed-At the recommendation of att tech support I closed out my NPR/Michigan radio app & reinstalled it after having so many issues of it closing itself down-It did not solve the problem less than 10” into listening the same thing started happening all over again😣

I am a VERY long time supporter of Michigan Radio, and for a variety of reasons am extremely disappointed by the rebranding of a storied institution, and will no longer support this station and company.
Please fire the agency that presented this idea, and return to the name we all know and trust.

This is unlistenable in its current state. I miss my functioning Michigan Radio App.

Downloaded this to hear the Governors press conferences live and they aired National news shows instead, disappointed.

The big new start button that works so well on my 7 blows up MichiganPublic when it loads on my 4, which I keep as a radio and podcast player. Sayonara WUOM!

Several times an hour, the audio stops and MichiganPublic says “buffering”.
Buffering implies that MichiganPublic is gathering data and will continue where it left off.
But it’s not.
When the audio returns, whether it takes 2 minutes or 20, the audio during the “buffering” period is completely skipped.
We lose the news stories, interviews, and anything else of interest that might occur during the audio blackout.
Instead of “buffering”, you might instead say “Data Loss”.
At least it would be more accurate.

The stream stops playing when you go to another app or even just to your Home Screen on the iPhone. This was a problem years ago that had been fixed for a long time. But the problem is back again. Makes it much less convenient to stream Mi Public.

MichiganPublic would be fantastic except for the buffering issues. Doesn’t matter if I switch devices or if I’m on cellular or Wi-Fi. MichiganPublic doesn’t stay connected to the stream very well.

When you start to stream there’s a message about organizations that make Michigan Radio possible. The biggest problems with the buffering is that it replays this message every time it disconnects/buffers even if you just heard it 30 seconds ago.

So frequently when I’m listening to a story I miss it because I’m listening to the same message repeated over and over. Very frustrating.

MichiganPublic intermittently stops playing. Using it here at the house with WiFi available. . Plays for 5 minutes then stops for 5 seconds. Plays for 1 minute then stops and restarts after maybe 10 seconds; or 20 seconds or just plain stops altogether. Sometimes it will replay the initial boot up station promo. Most times it just restarts where it left off. It doesn’t actually crash and disappear. I tried using a lower playback fidelity and that hasn’t cured the problem. I don’t know what else to try. In the last hour have successfully used the Apple “Podcasts” app and had no problems whatsoever.
iOS 13.3.1 iPhone XS Max 256GB

MichiganPublic seems to have a lot of issues downloading the audio. Very annoying. I’ve tried deleting and downloading MichiganPublic again thinking it might help but no luck. It’s a shame because this is the main way I listen to Michigan Radio

Hmmm, Michigan Radio is always suggesting that the mobile app is a good alternative when you can’t listen to the radio. So far I’ve never had my radio buffer again and again and again and again while I’m trying to listen. New app in the works?

My iPhone 7 was recently replaced with the IPhone 11. I was unable to stop the Michigan Radio app from playing with the 7, and had to delete MichiganPublic each time I wanted to stop play. I assumed it was a problem with my older phone. Nope. Same thing again-I have to uninstall MichiganPublic to stop play on my 11, then reinstall it when I want to listen to live play. Nothing makes it’s stop playing unless I uninstall it. Just bizarre. The only app I have installed, out of a couple dozen, that has that issue. The quality over the years has certainly dwindled.

MichiganPublic still mostly works but the home screen no longer has images for each story: there’s just blank space where there used to be graphics above each headline.

I know I’m aging and don’t see as well as I used to. That said the new app font size on the portion describing the story headline is a challenge to read. Or maybe it’s the font.

Not sure what is happening. I can not do the current update on the iPad.
Seems like I can no longer stream Michigan Radio. Very sad.

MichiganPublic is great for listening to streaming radio, but like many people, I was drawn by the alarm function. With an experience similar to those of other reviewers, I found the alarm function did not work.....but then to read the developer notes.....you have to keep MichiganPublic and alarm screen OPEN for the alarm to work. i.e. - your iPhone can never go to sleep. Once it goes to sleep, MichiganPublic shuts off and the alarm will not work. Okay.....set the phone to never sleep? As if we don't already have battery life issues as is. Nice idea......but not practical. I'll use MichiganPublic for listening to the station, but thank god the phone has a decent set of alarm function already built-in.

Three stars only because alarm does not function properly or efficiently. Rest of app is great.

I don’t like the way the ap plays the radio when I open it. I just want to read the news, I don’t listen to the radio on my phone.

Like other reviewers, I was intrigued by the idea that I could be awakened by the WUOM-FM broadcast, instead of one of the built-in iPhone alarm sounds. Imagine my disappointment with every update of MichiganPublic to go to ALARM, select a time, touch SET, and the entire app crashes (I'm on a 3G-S).

Also, the streaming of the broadcast - while I love the feature - does not operate "in the background" (whereas the iPod function will not only operate in the background while checking other functions, but will also pause for a phone call, then automatically resume when the call ends). If I want to reply to a text or check my email or have a call come in, MichiganPublic closes and the stream quits.

I'll accept a "continuous improvement" approach - MichiganPublic has a lot of promise, and I look forward to its full functionality!

I use MichiganPublic on my iPad and MichiganPublic pauses or stops altogether frequently. I know the wifi isn't great at my office, but I don't have anywhere near this much trouble with other apps. After having to go back and refresh MichiganPublic ten times in ten minutes, I usually give up and stream music or podcasts.

Cannot see what’s currently playing (or upcoming schedule) from within MichiganPublic . To see what’s playing, must click drop-down menu, choose “Show Schedule,” which then opens a browser window! For developers: check out WGVU’s app; it is much more user-friendly.

I’m not sure whether the problem is MichiganPublic or my less than perfect iPhone X, but when I go for a walk, the streaming hangs when the phone transitions from WiFi to cellular. Most of the time I have to manually restart the streaming. On some occasions, this happens multiple times during a half hour walk.

After the update fix for IOS 10.3, things are working again. Thanks for the quick fix!

i love listening to NPR in the car, so convenient to be able to listen live without a radio (:

I’ve used MichiganPublic for years, especially when I travel to connect with Michigan Radio, so far, anywhere in the world. My sole gripe is that it only presents in portrait mode on my iPad, making it awkward on my landscape-configured iPad. Surely this isn’t a difficult thing to include in future revisions?