129.4 is the frequency used for ARINC over the CONUS, and while you can't hear ground stations unless you are within a dozen miles of one, the nature of aircraft communications (read-backs) is that you basically don't need to hear both sides of the conversation to get a good feel for what is going on. And most of the stuff you hear on these phone patches never makes the news and seldom even gets back to the passenger cabin.
Three examples from yesterday are attached, a reboot at FL370, pondering fuel and alternates while holding and driving with the parking brake on, all received by the new JFK ARINC feed. American 1852 (ORD-BOS was about 30 miles SW of Rochester at first contact, roughly 270 miles distant, American 1016 (STL-LGA) was 200 miles away over Milton, PA and ExpressJet 6043 (ALB-IAD) was about 150 miles away over Reading, PA.