It was that companies talked about their products through advertisements on radio instead of buying advertising space in newspapers.

VOA: special.2011.04.14

Flight controllers in Houston were silent as Scott Kelly spoke via radio from space.

WSJ: A Silent Moment, From Washington to Space Station

And new innovations such as printed circuit technology and the white space radio spectrum (transmitting data over unused TV channel airwaves as we switch from analogue to digital TV) are all helping to create a world where everything can talk to everything else, and everything to us.

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As part of SETI's research, its scientists use computers to listen for radio signals from outer space.

CNN: The Internet: the final frontier for space watchers