Henry C. and Cora B. Gates founded the Gates Radio & Supply Company in 1922 in the kitchen pantry of their apartment in Quincy, Ill., primarily to create a job for their son, Parker S. Gates, who was only 15 years old at the time. He began by selling crystal radios to friends and neighbors in the community. Gates Radio & Supply Company soon became a serious enterprise, and Parker’s father quit his job to head the family business. By the 1950s, Gates Radio had become one of the country’s principal radio equipment suppliers — a major provider of audio consoles, turntables, AM, FM and shortwave radio transmitters and accessories. It also made its first forays into the new field of television at that time.

In December 1957, Harris Intertype Corp., a lithography and typesetting conglomerate that was making its first venture into the field of electronics, acquired the company. Parker Gates stayed on as the president of the division, which gradually phased in the Harris name and is today known as Harris Broadcast Communications.

Among the Pro Audio community, Gates broadcast consoles, preamplifiers, and limiting amplifiers/compressors are regarded as some the highest-quality audio equipment from the 1950s and 1960s.