93.3 · THE PROGRAMME GUIDE
A radio that doesn't listen back.
Most radio apps put a meter on the listener. Mine doesn't. No ads. No tracking. No account. Anonymous usage statistics only, never tied to you. Pull up a chair and I'll show you the wiring.
UPDATED 17 AUGUST 2026 · 5 MIN READ
What the other stations charge
A free app with ads is not free. You pay at a different counter. First it wants an account, so your listening has a name on it. Then come the advertising and tracking SDKs, little meters in the walls, reporting what you do to companies you have never heard of. All that machinery to play a stream the broadcaster already sends out for free. Radio deserved better manners.
How I wired this place
No account. There is nothing to sign up for. No name, no email, no password, no login. Open the app and it plays.
No ads, no tracking. Radio Dad carries no advertising SDKs and nothing that follows you into other apps or websites. What it does count is anonymous usage statistics: events like “a station was played”, filed under a random id, never tied to you. Search text and station names are never sent.
On-device by default. Live Captions transcribe a broadcast in 30+ languages and translate it into about 20, using Apple's on-device models. The audio never leaves your phone.
Direct streaming. When you press play, your device connects to the broadcaster's own stream. I do not proxy it, record it, or sit in the middle. There is no listening log on my side to leak or sell.
Your library stays yours. Favorites, recent stations, and identified songs live on your device. If you use iCloud, they sync privately across your own Apple devices through your own iCloud account, which I cannot see.
THE TWO OUTSIDE LINES
Two outside services get a line into the building, each with one narrow job. RevenueCat keeps the subscription ledger: it learns which plan you bought, filed under an anonymous id it invents, and never your name, your location, or a single station you played. PostHog receives the anonymous usage statistics, on servers in the EU, so I can see which features earn their place on the schedule. Neither gets anything tied to you. That is the whole guest list.
What I can see, and what I cannot
Radio Dad is built to need as little about you as possible, and it runs no servers that store data about you. The broadcaster's server receives your device's IP and standard connection info when you tune in, the same as it would from any audio player. That part is between you and them. Everything else, what you like, what you played, where you listened, stays on your device. The complete picture, including the few third parties a feature talks to and why, is in the Privacy Policy. And Apple makes every app declare what it collects, so you can cross-check my privacy label on the App Store. I encourage it. Trust is good, receipts are better.
Who pays for the lights
The optional Premium subscription does, not advertising. The core app is free: unlimited listening across 50,000+ stations in 230+ countries and territories, the globe, favorites, and the Apple Watch app. Listeners who want Live Captions, translation, and unlimited song identification pay $9.99 a month or $39.99 a year, after a 7-day free trial on the yearly plan. It works on iPhone and iPad, iOS 18 and up. When the listener is the customer, the incentives stay simple: make the radio good. There is nobody else to please.
From the mailbag
Is Radio Dad really ad-free and tracker-free?
Yes. No ads anywhere in the app, no advertising SDKs, and nothing that follows you into other apps or websites. There is no account, so there is no profile to build and nothing to sell. What the app keeps is anonymous usage statistics only, never tied to you. The full detail is in the Privacy Policy.
Do I need an account to use Radio Dad?
No. Download it and listen. No sign-up, no email, no password. Your favorites and history live on your device, and sync privately across your own Apple devices through iCloud if you are signed in. There is no Radio Dad account in the middle.
Does Radio Dad track what I listen to?
No. Streams play directly from the broadcaster to your device, captions run on your device, and station names and search text are never sent anywhere. The app counts anonymous events, like that a station was played, never tied to you. The broadcaster's own server sees a connection, the same as it would from any player.
How is Radio Dad free with no ads?
The optional Premium subscription pays the bills, not advertising. The core app is free: unlimited listening, the globe, favorites, and the Apple Watch app. People who want Live Captions, translation and unlimited song identification pay $9.99 a month or $39.99 a year, after a 7-day free trial on the yearly plan. That keeps the incentives simple: make the radio good.
More from the guide: the shop behind the radio · a free TuneIn alternative · the Privacy Policy
QUIET BY DESIGN
Just the radio.
No ads. No tracking. No account. Get Radio Dad for iPhone and iPad, or listen free in your browser. I'll keep the transmitter warm.