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Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

97.5 The Fanatic vs Audacy

97.5 The Fanatic 4.7★ · Free to download 60
Winner 97.5 The Fanatic
Audacy 4.5★ · Free to download 40

For dedicated listeners of 97.5 The Fanatic, App A offers a more direct and potentially stable experience for that specific station, despite its own issues, while App B, Audacy, struggles with widespread playback and ad problems across its broader range of stations.

Full reviews: 97.5 The Fanatic · Audacy

97.5 The Fanatic (App A) is a single-station app primarily praised for its content, though it suffers from significant technical glitches. Audacy (App B) is a multi-station app that provides a wider selection but is plagued by severe, consistent playback issues and excessive, repetitive ads.

Head to head

Content & Personalities edge: 97.5 The FanaticR2R3R5R8
97.5 The Fanatic Users of 97.5 The Fanatic highly praise the station's content, especially the afternoon shows and specific personalities like Mike Miss, with many expressing loyalty to the station for Philly sports news R2R5. However, some users lament the departure of favorite hosts and criticize the current moderators for a lack of insight or knowledge R3R8.
Audacy Audacy offers a wide variety of local radio stations and podcasts, including sports radio, music, and news . Users appreciate the access to specific teams' coverage or favorite music genres R79.
Reliability & Playback Issues edge: 97.5 The FanaticR1R9R10R16
97.5 The Fanatic 97.5 The Fanatic app is frequently criticized for freezing, stopping playback, crashing, and disconnecting, often requiring users to restart the app R1R9R10R16. Some users report the play button not working or the app failing to stream live content .
Audacy Audacy is widely reported to have severe and persistent playback issues, including random stopping, skipping forward or backward, repeating segments, and buffering . Many users describe the app as unreliable and unusable due to these glitches .
Ads & Commercials tieR4R7R12R18
97.5 The Fanatic Users of 97.5 The Fanatic frequently complain about excessive and repetitive ads, including an ad playing every time the app is opened or restarted, and ads interrupting live broadcasts R4R7R12R18. Some note ads playing outside of normal commercial breaks .
Audacy Audacy users are highly frustrated by excessive, repetitive, and often out-of-sync commercials . Many report hearing the same ads repeatedly, sometimes multiple times in a row, or ads interrupting live content .
Features & Usability edge: 97.5 The FanaticR11R12R15R29
97.5 The Fanatic The 97.5 The Fanatic app allows streaming of live radio and offers some on-demand content, though users initially requested more on-demand and download functionality R11R15. Some users experience issues with autoplay when the phone wakes or when connected to Bluetooth R12. The app includes a store and contests R29.
Audacy Audacy offers live radio streaming and on-demand playback, but users report significant issues with seeking, fast-forwarding, and rewinding, often causing the app to jump to incorrect segments or restart . There are complaints about the UI being clunky and lacking accessibility features for VoiceOver users . Issues with CarPlay and Bluetooth connectivity are also noted, where the stream stops if the app isn't in the foreground . The app also has restrictions on listening to certain sports games due to league rules R79.
Pick 97.5 The Fanatic if

You are a dedicated fan of 97.5 The Fanatic and prioritize its specific local sports content, even if it means dealing with occasional app glitches and repetitive ads R5.

Pick Audacy if

You need access to a wide variety of radio stations and podcasts and are willing to tolerate significant, frequent playback issues, excessive ads, and a clunky user interface .

Evidence note: Both apps are free, so there is no free-vs-paid asymmetry. The evidence for App B (Audacy) is significantly more extensive and uniformly negative regarding technical performance, despite its higher number of overall ratings. App A (97.5 The Fanatic) has fewer reviews, but a similar proportion of recent negative reviews focusing on technical issues.

Frequently asked

Do these apps have a lot of ads?
Yes, both 97.5 The Fanatic and Audacy are heavily criticized for excessive and repetitive commercials, with users reporting ads playing frequently, sometimes interrupting content, and often repeating the same ad multiple times R4R7R18R52.
Are there playback issues with these apps?
Yes, both apps suffer from significant playback issues; 97.5 The Fanatic users report constant freezing, crashing, and disconnecting R1R9R16R24, while Audacy users experience widespread problems with random stopping, skipping, repeating segments, and buffering .
Can I listen to sports games on these apps?
97.5 The Fanatic is specifically for Philly sports radio and allows listening to Flyers games, though some users report it switches away from other games R37R56R57. Audacy offers sports radio but has content restrictions, blocking some MLB games due to league rules R79.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R2] 97.5 The Fanatic 5/5 · US Great Philly sports radio show: Ray dunne great producer. Bring back Mike again tho
  2. [R3] 97.5 The Fanatic 3/5 · US Not enough info: The moderators are on for only about 4 hrs per day, yet many don’t seem to be up on current events, and often don’t provide much in the way of insights or specifics. Then, go off half cocked based on a lack of real facts, or technical understanding of the specifics. It’s basically laziness and no interest in becoming fully knowledgeable.
  3. [R5] 97.5 The Fanatic 5/5 · US These folks know sports: Love the afternoon shows. Unfiltered is number 1!
  4. [R8] 97.5 The Fanatic 4/5 · US Miss Tyrone & Mikey Miss: I prefer 97.5 I always have. But why do you keep John Kincade and his negative style( which fits the other station better) over Tyrone Johnson and Mikey Miss ???
  5. [R1] 97.5 The Fanatic 2/5 · US Bad app: Freezes constantly
  6. [R9] 97.5 The Fanatic 3/5 · US Frustrating app: I love being able to stream 97.5 during work so I don’t miss anything and am not always able to have a radio. My biggest complaint is that that app constantly restarts itself while listening. Repetitively I must hear Mikey Miss repeat his commercial like as if I were first opening the app. Its not a connectivity problem with the phone. It does it on wifi or the phones data. Its th
  7. [R10] 97.5 The Fanatic 1/5 · US Operation: The sound stops playing if you exit the app.
  8. [R16] 97.5 The Fanatic 1/5 · US It used to be good: This app just shuts down all the time for no apparent reason or purpose. 75% of the time the app will launch but won’t stream. Very disappointed
  9. [R4] 97.5 The Fanatic 1/5 · US Ads: An ad to start each time so I can then listen to the ads every 10 minutes on the show and if I don’t want to listen to them and put on music and go back I then have to listen to another ad.
  10. [R7] 97.5 The Fanatic 1/5 · US Long commercials: All of sudden started cutting off from content and playing long commercials and sneaking them in during a commercial break have to stop and restart to get back to live radio
  11. [R12] 97.5 The Fanatic 3/5 · US Good, but not optimal: 1. The iOS app will start playing automatically when the phone wakes, even if it’s not in the foreground. I unlocked my phone this morning and opened Facebook, and I hear Missanelli’s commercial start blaring. Not connected to my car or anything else, and the app hadn’t been used in 12+ hours. 2. It would be great to put a cookie or refresh token in. As it is, the commerci
  12. [R18] 97.5 The Fanatic 1/5 · US Endless commercials: This app is horrible for attempting to listen to 97.5. Every time I try to use it, a continuous stream of 5-6 commercials play before any AirPlay.
  13. [R11] 97.5 The Fanatic 5/5 · US 97.5: I love the shows but wish the app made every show available on demand like Wip does
  14. [R15] 97.5 The Fanatic 3/5 · US Where Are All The Interviews?: Last one is in early December if 2016...c'mon man!!
  15. [R29] 97.5 The Fanatic 5/5 · US Away from Philly station: My go to for all Philly sports news and events! Every show is entertaining informative and accurate! The app also offers a store to make purchases and all kinds of contests happen all the time!
  16. [R52] 97.5 The Fanatic 2/5 · US Ads are like an mkultra experiment: Ive heard Sal Pal say that this year the NFL is on pace for the most passing touchdowns possibly 1 million timrs now. Why advertise thisnover and over and over? I would listen twice as much if the ads weren’t so repetitive. They will play the same promo segment for the sixers, flyers and sal pal sometimes 3 times in a row. Sometimes they will play other ads at t
  17. [R24] 97.5 The Fanatic 1/5 · US Stops playing every 5-10 minutes horrible: This app is the worst. Stops playing, freezes up only for you to have to restart the app and listen to commercials AGAIN before it pics back up
  18. [R37] 97.5 The Fanatic 5/5 · US Flyers games: I enjoy listening to flyers game when tv cover changes to people who i don’t really like
  19. [R56] 97.5 The Fanatic 1/5 · US Switches away from games.: I can listen to the pre game show and post game show on the app. However, it doesn’t let me listen to the games and switches to some dumb espn radio stuff. Please fix, it’s very annoying.
  20. [R57] 97.5 The Fanatic 5/5 · US Listening Live: Works for the Flyers games if that's why you're downloading this app
  21. [R79] Audacy 1/5 · US No good: I downloaded this App to listen to NY Mets games. No matter where they are playing, they block it out bc of supposedly league restrictions. It’s BS.

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store