Yeah, AM radio is still used for even the largest talk shows, and it's far from perfect quality (which is why AM is rarely used for music, but it's fine for speech). Likewise landline phones especially long distance calling was never all that great sound quality but it never stopped you from picking up the phone when someone called.
I can’t stand it. Judging from the transcript, at least whoever did that seems to feel the same. (Since humans are not terribly dissimilar I would be willing to guess that actually many other people feel the same.)