My backstory is similar to that of
@trentbob. I had an interest in both photography and electronics from a young age, discovered CB radio in junior high and got "real" cameras in high school and became a photographer for the school's yearbook and newspaper and did a little freelancing for a community newspaper.
I pursued a journalism education in college (photojournalism wasn't yet a discipline in most schools) and learned about scanners as a photographer for the college newspaper. This led to a career in photojournalism where I learned a tremendous amount about radio communication systems thru scanning and having access to various agencies. I became the "radio guy" at the several newspapers where I worked.
I had a CB radio in my personal vehicle and a Motorola VHF (Motrac, Mocom 70 and Mitrek over the years) in my company car, along with 2-3 scanners. Amateur radio interested me, but remained elusive because of the licensing requirements and procedures. I did get a Class A (now GMRS) license.
I got my first 4WD vehicle in the late 80's and promptly equipped it with a CB and scanner. The CB provided communication with my buddies out on the trail and the scanner offered situational awareness in the backcountry. I eventually started leading commercial 4WD tours as a side gig where we used CB for communication.
Ham licensing modernized in the late 80's and the gift of a Henry 1 HF transceiver motivated me enough to learn the dreaded Code and earn my ham license. I incorporated ham radio on my tours. We still used CB for the actual tour comms, but my partner and I (and any other clients who were hams) used ham radio to provide reliable communication and extended range.
Eventually, as photography transitioned from film to digital, I became an editor and worked inside managing a team of editors that was responsible for handling all of the paper's digital photo assets. Our two way radio system was replaced with pagers, later Nextel and finally cell phones. We still kept the VHF mobiles and scanners in our company cars, and I was responsible for keeping the scanners up to date.
The commercial 4WD tour business became unsustainable in 2008, but I still have a 4WD vehicle. I have a scanner for situational awareness and ham radio for communicating with my trail buddies. I'll sometimes temporally install a CB if I'm on a trip where that's the primary form of communication (but a lot of trail comms are transitioning to GMRS).
Over five decades, scanners (and other radios) were the gateway to professional needs, rewarding hobbies and becoming more technically literate.
Makes me laugh just thinking of that. Being older now I would never do such a thing again. To be out there while the police are looking for a dude who very well could be armed, you know? Then it's a possible hostage situation. Yeah, I'll never ever do that again. Best to leave the Pros do their job. 
