Kabul Radio
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Radio Afghanistan, also known as Radio Kabul or Voice of Sharia, is the
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...
of
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
, owned by
Radio Television Afghanistan National Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA; ''Da Afġānistān Millī Rādīo Televizion'', ''Rādīo Televizion-e Millī-ye Afġānistān'', branded as ملی (meaning ''national'')) is the public-broadcasting organization of Afghanistan, bas ...
. The frequencies are 1107 kHz (AM) and 105.2 MHz (FM) for the Kabul area. The name ''Radio Kabul'' has been given to many different incarnations of the state-run radio station since the first radio transmitters were installed in
Kabul Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...
in the 1920s.


History


Origins

In 1925, a 200
watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...
Russian transmitter operating at AM 833
kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...
was installed in Kabul Palace by King
Amanullah Khan Ghazi (warrior), Ghazi Amanullah Khan (Pashto/Dari: ; 1 June 1892 – 26 April 1960) was the head of state, sovereign of Afghanistan from 1919, first as Emirate of Afghanistan, Emir and after 1926 as Kingdom of Afghanistan, King, until his abdic ...
. This transmitter was destroyed in the 1929 uprising against the King. The transmitter was replaced in 1931 by the new king
Mohammed Nadir Shah Mohammad Nadir Shah (Pashto/Dari: محمد نادر شاه April 1883 – 8 November 1933) was King of Afghanistan from 15 October 1929 until his assassination in November 1933. He became the king after his victory in the Afghan Civil War of ...
, and was upgraded in 1940 when a new 20
kilowatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...
transmitter was installed in its place, operating at 600 kHz. This is generally considered the official birth of Radio Kabul. Programmes were broadcast in
Pashto Pashto ( , ; , ) is an eastern Iranian language in the Indo-European language family, natively spoken in northwestern Pakistan and southern and eastern Afghanistan. It has official status in Afghanistan and the Pakistani province of Khyb ...
,
Dari Persian Dari (; endonym: ), Dari Persian (, , or , ), or Eastern Persian is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan. Dari is the Afghan government's official term for the Persian language;Lazard, G.Darī – The New Persian ...
,
Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
,
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...
and
French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...
.


Peacetime

As King
Mohammed Zahir Shah Mohammad Zāhir Shāh (15 October 1914 – 23 July 2007) was the last King of Afghanistan, reigning from 8 November 1933 until he was deposed on 17 July 1973. Ruling for 40 years, Zahir Shah was the longest-serving ruler of Afghanistan since t ...
tried to reinforce his goal of pan-Afghan unity, the station's name was changed in 1953 to the ''Afghan Broadcasting System'', and again in 1960 to ''Radio Afghanistan''. During times of relative peace in the 1960s and 70s, Radio Afghanistan hosted a whole generation of traditional and modern Afghan artists such as Ustad Mohammad Hussain Sarahang, Ustad Farida Mahwash, and Ustad Mohammad Hashem Cheshti. These master musicians were revered not only in Afghanistan but also in
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
and other countries.


Afghanistan conflict era

Throughout the modern history of Afghanistan, the radio has been controlled by (and renamed by) the currently ruling party or organization. The various changes of governments during the 1970s were all announced by the new leaders over the radio station. After the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
installed a
puppet government A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government is a State (polity), state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside Power (international relations), power and subject to its ord ...
in 1979, Radio Afghanistan was controlled by the Soviet-backed government and was used to rebroadcast pro-Soviet propaganda directly from the Soviet Union. During the 1990s civil war, the radio station was damaged several times during the fighting, changing hands as different factions gained control of Kabul. In 1996, when the
Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...
gained control of Kabul, the station's name was changed to the ''Voice of
Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...
'' (; ). As the Taliban consolidated their power throughout the country, the radio station was used to rally Taliban supporters and broadcast new edicts by the ruling
mullah Mullah () is an honorific title for Islam, Muslim clergy and mosque Imam, leaders. The term is widely used in Iran and Afghanistan and is also used for a person who has higher education in Islamic theology and Sharia, sharia law. The title h ...
s. The Taliban banned music on the new station and ordered the destruction of the radio archives, which contained irreplaceable tapes of Radio Afghanistan music and political programs going back over forty years. The tapes were presumed to have been permanently lost, but in 2002, the BBC reported that, miraculously, the archives survived not only the Taliban but the utter destruction of the Radio Afghanistan building by American bombs during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001. The tapes were hidden by Mohammad Siddiq or "Mr. Computer", the person in charge of the archives, from the Taliban who destroyed what they thought were the archives but were instead actually Indian and Iranian music tapes. Siddiq claimed there were 50,000 radio tapes. After the Taliban were driven from power, Radio Afghanistan resumed its music and political programs. It has been claimed that the first song broadcast by Radio Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban was the famous patriotic song "Watan" (''Homeland'') by Abdul Wahab Madadi. In 2021, following the Taliban takeover of Kabul, the ''Voice of Sharia'' branding was again reinstated, with the station signing in with the aforementioned name on 16 August 2021, the day following the takeover. Music broadcasts were again outlawed, being replaced by religious, patriotic and jihadist chants.


See also

*
Music of Afghanistan The music of Afghanistan comprises many varieties of classical music, folk music, and modern popular music. Afghanistan has a rich musical heritage and features a mix of Persian melodies, Indian compositional principles, and sounds from ethn ...
*
Mass media in Afghanistan The mass media in Afghanistan is monitored by the Ministry of Information and Culture (MoIC), and includes broadcasting, digital and printing. It is mainly in Dari and Pashto, the official languages of the nation. It was reported in 2019 that Afgh ...
*
Radio Television Afghanistan National Radio Television Afghanistan (RTA; ''Da Afġānistān Millī Rādīo Televizion'', ''Rādīo Televizion-e Millī-ye Afġānistān'', branded as ملی (meaning ''national'')) is the public-broadcasting organization of Afghanistan, bas ...
* List of radio stations in Afghanistan * Radio Shariat


References

{{Coord missing, Afghanistan Mass media in Afghanistan Radio stations in Afghanistan Mass media in Kabul Defunct shortwave radio stations