I remember when phones used to be good.
Telemarketers have been around for a long, long time (Wikipedia claim “…the practice of contacting potential customers by telephone originated in the late 19th century.”).
I personally recall a lot more telemarketing in the 90s, though I was a kid and just passed the phone to mom or dad. But that was also a time when caller ID was a luxury, and not everyone had answering machines.
>2000 mile flight. Not crazy long but not short. (The state of Alaska was not involved, just the airline.)