In the days before digital communications this was a nuisance at worse, but when modems and computers get interconnected with transmitters and radios the potential for chaos is great. This is especially problematic for small installations such as boats and RV's where the antenna and ground system literally wrap around the radio and other components. The distortion problem is subtle because you will rarely hear it yourself. Data errors can occur in the modem's serial-port connection. These will usually be detected by the error checking associated with binary modes but it will not be at all obvious that RF is to blame.
Errors can happen either sending or receiving messages.
If sending, then errors are likely at the beginning of the message transmission, as the computer is busy sending data to the controller's buffer memory at the same time that the controller is sending the beginning of the message over the radio. In either case there are serial data transfers happening at the same time that the radio is transmitting digital data. Given the general lack of attention paid to spelling these days, such errors usually go unnoticed. If a binary transfer is in progress then a format or checksum error generally occurs because the binary protocol includes error checking. If an error is detected then an error message is sent and a disconnect occurs.