In contrast to the well-developed body of scholarly research on the impact of the state, the tribe and Islam for nation building and the formation of political ideologies in the Afghan context, cultural history – including the cultural and social history of everyday technologies – offers much that remains to be studied. This paper brings attention to the history of the development of radio in Afghanistan as an important window on the social, cultural, political and economic processes that took place in a thriving cosmopolitan city in the latter half of the twentieth century. It also highlights the new sounds, voices and communities that the radio cultivated, giving a more rounded understanding of the Afghans’ public life during this time period. By following the thread of appeal of Afghanistan’s most popular musical icon to-date, Ahmad Zahir, we can better appreciate the cognitive dimensions of the unexpected and diverse forms of modernity that Afghans were experiencing during a period where political reforms and civil liberties gave way to unprecedented possibilities for various forms of self expression. In addition, by tracing the circulation of Ahmad Zahir’s music across borders into Iran and India, the paper offers a close examination of the scale and contours of Afghan connectivity with the wider world during this time period. Sources for this paper are drawn from sound recordings, newspapers and other print media, memoirs, historical photographs and a collection of interviews with employees of Radio Afghanistan.