In this paper, I show the under heard voices of those whose primary media is radio, the proliferation of large trend analysis over fine-grained exploratory tools for large scale media data, and the absence of exploratory tools for hyper local media like local radio. In response, I present RadioSilenced, a web-based tool that enables the semi-serendipitous (not algorithmically curated) exploration and display of talk radio call-in data to encourage a deeper understanding of the 10 percent of US communities whose primary news consumption is radio, in a whole-system view but sample-by-sample exploration closer to ethnographic observation than a more reductive, big data analysis. To my knowledge, large scale analysis of talk radio, one of the oldest forms of media, has rarely been attempted outside of the Lab for Social Machines.
