WTOP News: DC, MD and VA News Reviews

by Nerk Twin

Around the DC metro area this radio station is jokingly known as the “all commercial, occasional content all the time”. They stick a commercial in every nook and cranny - And the same lame low end commercials over and over again. The commercials are mostly for overpriced roofers, window installers, plumbers and “clinics” for erectile disfunction or any other disease, or fake disease a hypochondriac could imagine. Basically, if you hear a commercial on this station (and that’s mostly what you’ll hear) you want to avoid that company like the plague. I have had WTOPNews for a few years and throughout the day I would check in at the top of the hour for news updates or for weather updates or until the commercials drove me away. But the recent version of WTOPNews started sticking in a commercial every time you start or pause WTOPNews . That’s a new low and the last straw for me. It’s ridiculous to force feed so many commercials, especially at a time when people are fleeing commercial driven media for on-demand services. I know the station is owned by some greedy media conglomerate that couldn’t care less about quality, but the listening experience on WTOPNews (and station) has become intolerable. Unless you love endless bad commercials from lame companies, don’t waste you time with WTOP.

by PGene45

I was born in DC and grew up listening to the station. I cannot successfully stream for more than 5-10 minutes. It just stops. It also does not pay attention to the other lPhone sound controls - like PLDespite your latest update it still fails in the exact same way and I still have to reboot the phone. Please fix this.

I have complained to you for years about your app going completely non-functional. Despite multiple updates to your latest version it has not changed. New iPhone. New IOS. New download of all apps. There’s not a lot for me to do except just completely forgetting you guys exist. So much for big stations and big money.

by BorgBoi In VA

I agree with the other reviewer, that WTOPNews does not allow streaming audio 50% of the time-even if you’re outside with good reception.
I haven’t been hit with a blitz of ads yet.

When the streaming audio does work, you can hear the news anchors repeatedly give out the wrong time (sometimes hours off) it makes you think they have a problem reading a clock. I also noticed the news anchors give a teaser storyline, cut to a commercial and completely forget the teaser story that they tempted you to stay tuned for.
Wished WTOP app developers read these reviews and implemented fixes-and someone should buy the newsroom a large digital clock!

by Youareblockingnegativereviews

The current version of WTOPNews operates continuously in the background even when you are not using it. AND despite iPhone settings that deny permission for background processing. I was shocked to find I had lost 40% of my battery charge early in the day. My charge typically lasts until bedtime with 50-60% remaining then. I had to delete WTOPNews .

by Djs8827

I still can’t get current weather info. I can get the news, traffic, and listen live but when I open the weather tab there is no info. I thought the recent update was supposed to fix this problem.

by CGWagner

When you are looking at the hourly forecasts, you don’t see what hours they actually correspond to. The daily forecast has days, like Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. But the hourly forecast does not list any of the hours. You are left to imagine whether or not it’s 12 o’clock 1 o’clock 2 o’clock 3 o’clock.

by Acousticaperture

The overhauled WTOP app seems to run much smoother as far as reading news is concerned, however listening to the audio stream doesn't work half the time, and then there are the notifications! As soon as the overhauled version released, now WTOPNews sends multiple political notifications throughout the day, every day, and there is no way to adjust or disable this outside of blocking WTOPNews from notifications in iOS! Thr only setting available in Settings is your weather location... WTOPNews seems half baked. The web News side has been fixed, but everything else is really poor.

by RMCF Fan

I've had WTOPNews for a few years and it's been working well until recently when I started using WTOPNews again a few weeks ago. I can't listen live at all as it'll crash as soon as I tap the listen button.

by Mhk1999

When is the WTOP app going to catch up with the digital world? The iPad app still does not allow being read in landscape mode. I either have to turn my head sideways or Take my device out of its holder and physically turn it.I did specifically download the WTOP app for iPad and I checked that is not locked in one position. Since WTOPNews description says it updates it every day I expect this flaw to be corrected by tomorrow, ha ha.

by Anonymous120516

Overall WTOPNews is okay. One thing that definitely needs to be addressed is the link between the notification pop up and the actual article. When a WTOP notification pops up and I click on it, it will open WTOPNews but it has never taken me to that actual news or article. I have to manually search for it from there - very frustrating.

by Lurid Jester

App is basically unusable now. Any time I try to start it up I get a perpetual loading screen that can only be cleared by rebooting my iPhone.

It all started when I got the bright idea that I wanted to wake up listening to WTOP. That doesn't appear to be an option because the one time it worked, I only got a clock tower bell.

Now every time I try to go in and do anything... endlessly spinning wheel of loading.

Two stars to reflect the many years I've used WTOPNews and listened to the radio station, reduced by the disappointment that WTOPNews is now broken. For me at least.

by Pizza Crap

This was working fine then literally one day it just started send traffic notifications. I went in WTOPNews and all notifications are turned off. I turned them all on then back off to see if that would help but nope. It still sends notifications after notifications. This is getting annoying. WTOPNews needs to be fixed.

by JuneMGroves

Right now, everytime I try to open WTOPNews to check weather or updates, it goes blank and shuts down on me.
I use WTOPNews all day everyday! This is driving me crazy!

by Mrsjlbrown

I listen to WTOP every morning via WTOPNews , and the past 2 weeks or so it crashes several times. WTOPNews completely closes. In the past it would pause a time or two, but now it closes and I have to keep reopening it.

by Supa Ordie

Adjustments based on our feedback? What adjustments? WTOPNews still crashes when activated. You guys need to get this together soon, we all are missing our news!

***Edit; update has been installed but it goes to a white screen then to a blue one with a infinite load icon. Still not working, please fix!***

EDIT; Julie everything is good now, WTOPNews is working as it should. Thanks for the help!

by FrozenOceanMD

It was a great idea to make WTOPNews available for CarPlay. It’s quick and easy to listen to WTOP radio or the most recent traffic report. The feature did freeze on me once, but it’s a good start.

by 12947472

The new update crashes weather and traffic. This is a helpful app though.

by Tape Doctor

Seemed to have resolved their problems. Can stream online again.

by Andrewalba

Looks like app has been fixed for those of us who use 24 hour time format. Uninstalled old version and installed latest version and all is working perfect. Have had no issues with audio dropping as previous reviewer (but then again I have fantastic LTE coverage) and I am really digging all the stuff packed into WTOPNews!

by GibsonX72

New update crashes on launch on iPhone 7...this needs to be fixed ASAP.

Update - the new release did indeed fix the launch crashing. Now that it actually launches, the new app looks great!

by Checker King In VA

I agree with the other reviewer, that WTOPNews does not allow streaming audio 50% of the time-even if you’re outside with good reception.
I haven’t been hit with a blitz of ads yet.

When the streaming audio does work, you can hear the news anchors repeatedly give out the wrong time (sometimes hours off) it makes you think they have a problem reading a clock. I also noticed the news anchors give a teaser storyline, cut to a commercial and completely forget the teaser story that they tempted you to stay tuned for.
Wished WTOP app developers read these reviews and implemented fixes-and someone should buy the newsroom a large digital clock!

by Fliper987

This was my “go to” app for news and traffic before I got in my car. I had to stop using it over 1 year ago because of inconsistency in streaming. Tried to give it a shot today and it won’t even open, keeps crashing. Unfortunately had to delete app, my XM app isn’t as locally detailed with traffic, but it works.

by Ooh Noo

Love WTOPNews and it’s contents. Yesterday’s update will not allow story to load. I deleted WTOPNews and reinstalled as well to no success. Please fix.

UPDATE: Wow! Someone listened! Thanks and it’s back to five stars. All is well! Keep up the good work