Mikey Dread is dead

MICHAEL 'Mikey Dread' Campbell, the broadcaster who introduced underground reggae to mainstream radio in the late 1970s through his Dread At The Controls programme, died last Saturday in the United States.

Campbell, only 54 years old, died six months after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. A posting on his website, dreadatthecontrols.com, said he passed away at his sister's home in Connecticut.

Dread At The Controls aired for two years on the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) where Campbell began working as a transmitter engineer in 1976.

He played the cutting-edge music of producers King Tubby and Augustus Pablo and dancehall singers like Linval Thompson.

In a 2003 interview, the Portland-born Campbell listed Dread At The Controls as one of his biggest achievements.

"Before that show come along, people at the JBC wanted to play classical music which had no relevance to Jamaican people," he said.

Campbell joined the JBC at a time when the hot jocks were the established Errol 'E.T.' Thompson and a rising Barry 'Barry G' Gordon. He said he was given the go-ahead to start Dread At The Controls in 1977 by Ossie Harvey and Rupert Linton who were senior members of the JBC production department.