Well, from being an SWL at about the age of 8, building crystal sets and stringing dipoles, I get into walkie talkies (the CB channel 14 variety at about 250mW), I got into CB.
Up until about 1975, all was well (CB was licensed), until a pesky little rash of CB related country tunes came out, closely followed by Kris Kristopherson's movie Convoy. The instant popularity pretty well killed CB, definitely killed the lower 23 channels and as soon as the 40 channel rigs started flooding the market, the escape to 22A and 22B was on. Following that SSB rigs was the only way to enjoy the hobby.
The next evolution led to the modifications that led to 'upstairs and downstairs' channels to escape the masses on the 'regular' 40 channels and all of the echo, roger beep and cussing and fussing in general. It had become a zoo and the last dregs that are left on 11 meters today are in my opinion, pretty much just that, the dregs, the bottom dwellers of society. Judging by what is heard on 20, 40 and 75 meters almost every day (evening) now, there is little difference between what CB had evolved into in the early 1990's and what can be heard on spots on our bands today.
My rigs evolved along the way from 23 channel Realistic and Pierce Simpson rigs to Lafayette and SBE and yeah, believe it or not, a President Jackson 'export rig' followed by an HR2510 and a Galaxy Saturn. Within a year of the Galaxy Saturn's purchase, it was replaced by a slightly less expensive Kenwood TS450S/AT along with the realization of the fact that you did NOT need to be a rocket scientist to get an amateur radio license and there was a class of license that did NOT require you to learn the dreaded Morse Code (this was at the dawn of the internet era and having the entire sum knowledge of the known universe at everyone, everyone you had about $5,000 to spare's, finger tips). Still at this time, just into the 90's, the question I had was, "Why the heck does amateur gear cost the same or less than CB garbage like the Galaxy Saturn?" The waste of money on CB equipment pretty well ticked me off, but, that was (and is) still the way it is today. An alleged 'top end' CB will run you a good $500 or so and an Icom 718 or a Yaesu 857D will run you about $600. It's a complete rip off and always has been.
My point? Most of us came from there and many from there will likely still follow, good, bad, indifferent, it doesn't matter, it's always been that way and likely always will. There will continue to be, adding to the ranks of CB, those who will not become licensed amateurs, well until they hear there are operators just like themselves on the amateur bands, or, they will elect to haunt anything between 25 and 30MHz and with our 'no testicular fortitude' FCC, it will never change. Like it or not, they are no longer staffed for real enforcement and the Amateur Auxiliary (the OO program) are only there to remind us when we step out of line as licensed amateurs. This is my point, licensed hams are fined if they step out of line, unlicensed operators are ignored and slip through the cracks in the legal system and we can choose to like it or not, it isn't going to change.
