The 1960s and early 1970s were defined by a series of world historical events including decolonization, the rise of student protest movements, cultural revolutions, and new ideologies and modes of identity formation. These events were affected by and produced a shift in consciousness. For Afghans, these decades not only signaled their engagement with new forms of consumption in technology, recreation, and entertainment that resembled cosmopolitan cultural forms in other parts of the world, but also marked a time of great social and political change. The establishment of a constitutional monarchy in 1964 gave way to civil rights, including freedom of speech, directly impacting radio, music production, and other forms of art. A coup in 1973 led to a republic that inaugurated formal cultural institutions for film, theatre, and performing arts. By 1979, experiments with communism fused radio with television through the state-sponsored media corporation, Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA), and further popularized regional mahalī (local and folk) music. World historical events coincided with these domestic affairs, and Afghans came to see themselves at the center of ideological struggles that spanned the globe. The Cold War, the rise of student protest movements, decolonization and anti-imperialism, and new modes of identity formation inspired revolutions from Kabul to Herat, from Panjshir to Bamiyan, and from Kandahar to Balkh. Radio broadcast the pulse of these events, revealing the talents of a people who responded to these “accidents of history” through their engagement with music, poetry, and literature.