Said to be not exactly local (5)
I believe the answer is:
vocal
'said' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
I can't explain the remainder of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for vocal that I've seen before include "Talkative" , "not instrumental" , "Relating to the human voice" , "Forthright in argument" , "Spoken" .)