After starting out as an engineer, Campbell hosted the most popular radio program on the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, using the DJ name Mikey Dread. Examples of Mikey Dread's distinctive radio chatter can be heard on the LP "African Anthem Dubwise". He also began working as a recording artist, with Lee "Scratch" Perry producing his signature tune, "Dread at the Controls". By the late 1970s he had started his own DATC label, working with artists such as Edi Fitzroy, Sugar Minott, and Earl Sixteen, as well as producing his own work. The label released Dread's albums "Evolutionary Rockers" (released in the UK as "Dread at the Controls"), and "World War III".