Press & broadcasting / Literature
Harvey Ovshinsky
born 1948 · journalist, broadcaster, documentary producer, teacher
Detroit storyteller who founded the underground newspaper Fifth Estate at 17 in 1965, then chronicled the city for decades on radio and television.
- Born
age 78- Birth name
- Harvey Kurek Ovshinsky
- Also known as
- Harvey O
- Detroit years
- 1950s–present
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Ovshinsky, son of the Detroit inventor Stanford Ovshinsky, was raised in the city and attended Mumford High School. In 1965, at just 17, he founded and edited Fifth Estate, one of the first underground newspapers in the country, which covered the antiwar movement, rock music and the city's counterculture, and is still published today. In 1970 he became news director of WABX, Detroit's free-form FM rock station. He went on to Detroit Public Television, where he helped supervise the Oscar-nominated documentary Who Killed Vincent Chin?, produced prime-time programs about Detroiters for WDIV and WXYZ, including The Voodoo Man of Heidelberg Street about artist Tyree Guyton, won fifteen regional Emmys, hosted Harvey O on the Metro on WDET, and has taught young writers with InsideOut Literary Arts and at the College for Creative Studies.
Highlights
- Founded Fifth Estate (1965), one of America's first underground papers
- News director of WABX-FM (1970)
- Helped supervise the Oscar-nominated documentary Who Killed Vincent Chin?
- Fifteen regional Emmy Awards
- Writer-in-residence with InsideOut Literary Arts
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · early 1960s
Mumford High School
The northwest-side high school he attended before launching Fifth Estate.
Worked here · 2000s
WDET 101.9 FM
Detroit's public radio station, which aired his talk show Harvey O on the Metro.