Radio Dad connector for Claude and ChatGPT (MCP)

In the conversation

I'm learning Portuguese. Any radio I could put on?

Lisbon · Porto Alegre · Luanda

Antena 1 Lisbon · Portugal

Rádio Gaúcha Porto Alegre · Brazil

Radio Luanda Luanda · Angola

Three accents of the same language, from three continents. Open the globe to see where they broadcast from, or ask for another country and the board changes.

Our illustration of the board, drawn in Radio Dad's own type and colour. The globe is the real one, spinning the same baked coastline the connector draws, and the cards and wording are the real thing too. Only the surrounding chat window belongs to whichever assistant you use.

01Setup

One URL, about a minute

Radio Dad is a remote MCP server. Any assistant that speaks the Model Context Protocol can add it, and the whole configuration is the address above.

Web, desktop and mobile · no sign-in

Open Settings, then Customize → Connectors.
Choose Add, then Add custom connector.
Paste the URL and confirm. No sign-in appears, because there is nothing to sign into.
Start a new chat and ask for a station. Claude asks once before it uses a tool; that prompt is Claude's, and everything our tools do is read-only.

Developer mode

Open Settings → Connectors and turn on developer mode.
Create a new connector and paste the same URL.
Ask for a station in a new conversation.
The server speaks the Apps SDK convention as well as MCP Apps, so the station board renders inline here too.

Terminal · one command

Run this. It connects immediately: no browser step, no token.
Add --scope user to keep it in every project rather than only this one.
Check it with /mcp, then ask for a station. Remove it with claude mcp remove radiodad.

$ claude mcp add --transport http radiodad \
    https://radiodad.app/mcp

~/.cursor/mcp.json · or .cursor/mcp.json per project

Add the entry below. Cursor keys these under mcpServers and infers the transport from the url, so no type is needed.
Reopen Cursor and enable the server in its MCP settings.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "radiodad": { "url": "https://radiodad.app/mcp" }
  }
}

.vscode/mcp.json · or MCP: Open User Configuration

Run MCP: Add Server from the Command Palette for the guided flow, or paste the entry below.
Note the differences: VS Code keys these under servers, not mcpServers, and it does want type.

{
  "servers": {
    "radiodad": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://radiodad.app/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Anything else that speaks MCP takes the same address. Three things differ between clients and cost people the most time: the top-level key is mcpServers in most and servers in VS Code; some want "type": "http" and some infer it; and in Claude Code an entry with a url but no type is read as a local command and refused. streamable-http works as an alias for http.

02What to ask

What to ask for

You never have to name the app. Describe what you want and the assistant picks the right tool. These are the ones we test against.

By place

Play me a radio station from Japan
What do people actually listen to in Brazil?
I want to hear what a station in Nairobi sounds like

By language

I'm learning French, is there French radio I could put on?
Arabic radio, something with talk rather than music
Spanish radio for the drive home

By mood

I want some lofi on in the background
Put on some talk radio
Find me a classical station

Let it choose

Take me somewhere random in the world
Anything good on the radio?
Is KEXP streaming right now?

03The tools

The six tools

All read-only. None of them writes anything, anywhere, and the assistant chooses between them from what you asked for.

search_radio_stations

A station by name, or close to it. For when someone knows the broadcaster: KEXP, BBC Radio 6, Rádio Gaúcha.

radio_stations_by_country

What a country is actually listening to, ranked by how alive the stream is rather than by name.

radio_stations_by_genre

Genre or mood: jazz, lofi, talk, classical, something to work to.

radio_stations_by_language

Stations broadcasting in a language, wherever they are. The one people learning a language reach for.

random_radio_station

Somewhere you would never have typed. The whole point of a globe.

whats_good_on_radio

A short hand-picked set for when the ask is open: anything good on right now?

04Honest limits

What it does not do

A connector that overpromises wastes your time. So here is the short list, plainly.

Audio does not play inside Claude

Assistants render connector interfaces in a sandbox whose security policy blocks audio from any other origin, so the request is never even made. Tapping a station opens it already playing in the free web player, or in the Radio Dad app on iPhone and iPad. Every music connector works this way.

Station logos stay as monograms

The same sandbox blocks images from other origins, so the board draws its own lettered tiles instead of loading a broadcaster's logo. It is the design, not a missing asset.

Some streams cannot be offered

A station is only offered as playable when it streams over https in a format the surface can decode. Anything else says so and opens the web player, instead of a play button that fails.

It is a catalogue, not a schedule

Stations come from an open, community-contributed catalogue, served from our own edge with corrections applied. It is contributed data, so a stream can go quiet between checks. There is no programme guide, and no podcasts here.

05Questions

The rest of it

The Model Context Protocol is an open standard for letting an assistant use an outside tool. Radio Dad runs a server that speaks it, so any assistant that also speaks it can look up live radio. You add it once with a URL, and nothing about your assistant changes otherwise.

Not in Claude. Assistants render connector interfaces in a sandbox whose security policy blocks audio from any other origin, so the request is never even made. Tapping a station opens it already playing in the free web player, or in the Radio Dad app on iPhone and iPad. Every music connector works this way, for the same reason.

None of the three. The connector is read-only and unauthenticated: no sign-in step, nothing to pay for, no account to create. Premium features live in the iOS app and are not part of the connector. The app makes the listening better, it is not a requirement for the asking.

None. It receives a search term from the assistant and returns stations. There is no account, no cookie, no analytics SDK and no profile. Radio Dad has never carried a third-party tracker. The privacy policy has the detail.

That prompt is your assistant's, not ours, and it is a good habit: it shows you which tool is about to run and with what arguments. Most assistants offer an "always allow" option once you have seen a few. Everything our tools do is read-only, so there is nothing they can change on your behalf.

A station is only offered as playable when it streams over https in a format the surface can decode. Plenty of broadcasters are http-only, or stream a playlist format a plain browser cannot open. Rather than a play button that fails, those say so and hand off.

An open, community-contributed catalogue, served from our own edge with our corrections applied on top. It is contributed data, so a stream can go quiet between checks and a name can be spelled oddly. We hide the ones we know are dead and fix the ones people report.

Delete the connector wherever you added it, or run claude mcp remove radiodad in Claude Code. There is no account on our side, so there is nothing left behind and nothing to cancel.

06Privacy

Nothing to collect

The connector takes a search term and returns stations. There is no account, no cookie, no analytics SDK and no profile, in the connector or in the app. Radio Dad has never carried a third-party tracker and is not going to start. Read the privacy policy, or write to [email protected] about anything, including a security concern.

One URL

Ask your assistant for the world.

https://radiodad.app/mcp

Get the app, free Open the web player Support