Back then there were only 4 police channels and one fire. It was all VHF repeater.
I'm with you re: radio listening history. Here in Los Angeles, It was possible to listen in on everything one needed to, depending on their area, with a 10-channel crystal scanner and probably still have a couple of crystal slots left over.
For me, to listen to LAPD in my particular area, there was one "Dispatch" channel, one "Mobile" channel for each of the five Divisions in our area, and two "Tac" channels, though really we used only one of them. And two Fire channels, one for "Dispatch" and one for "Fireground". So, there you. Eight channels to listen to LAPD and LAFD in my entire local area.
Now? Although "Dispatch" and "Mobile" are on the same channel, in addition to multiple "Tac" channels, we now have "Talkaround" channels for each Division.
My first programmable handheld scanner had 30 channels and I was hard-pressed to think of enough frequencies to fill up all 30. On the plus side of that, I was able to remember, by the frequency number, what it was. There was no alpha tags back then. Having said all that, the crystal scanners just worked better. They could be "tweaked" to "tune" the scanner for better reception. Now, your radio is as good as it comes out of the box. Some are better than others.