The principle for this book is simple: for a year the radio becomes the conduit for a young woman's diary. It shows itself to be a kind of conscience wallpaper, a nervous background noise. With a radio in every home, car, office building, mall space and waiting room, we are surrounded by its many voices, "Radio On" examines these voices, making them "truly" audible, clarifying and refining until we truly understand that democracy is alive and well in America--at least on the radio.

There are approximately 502 million radios in America. For this savvy, far-reaching diary, celebrated journalist and author Sarah Vowell turned hers on and listened--closely, critically, creatively--for an entire year.

As a series of impressions and reflections regarding contemporary American culture, and as an extended meditation on both our media and our society, this keenly focused book is as insightful as it is refreshing.

Throughout Radio On, Vowell's touch is about as delicate as Teddy Kennedy's after a pitcher of martinis (Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times).