ON TRACK TO PBS: Locally-Made Documentary About Uniroyal to Air Statewide
public television is going to get a dose of Eau Claire history this spring
When Rubber Hit the Road, a locally produced documentary about the legacy of Eau Claire’s Uniroyal tire plant, will soon be hitting the airwaves.
Filmmakers B.J. Hollars and Steve Dayton recently announced that their hour-long documentary – which has screened for appreciative audiences around Wisconsin, including a sold-out Pablo Center crowd last May – will be broadcast statewide on PBS Wisconsin at 7pm Tuesday, May 20. It will also stream live at pbswisconsin.org at the same time, and will be available on-demand online the following day.
Hollars and Dayton – a.k.a. Fireside Productions – first approached PBS Wisconsin last summer about a potential partnership. “After some collaboration, we got the documentary fine-tuned and ready for statewide TV and streaming,” they said. “We are so grateful to PBS Wisconsin for including us in its mission to ‘boldly enrich, educate and entertain’ its audiences. It's an incredible honor to be a part of that tradition.”
The documentary tells the story of the landmark tire factory, the thousands of people who made it hum, the cataclysmic impact of the plant’s closure in 1992, and the ultimate resilience of the Chippewa Valley in the face of the crisis.
“The story of America’s manufacturing decline is well-known, but less publicized is how cities like Eau Claire fought to reinvent themselves amid such hardship,” the filmmakers said. “Such resiliency has long inspired us. We hope it will inspire viewers across the state to fight for their own futures.”
So what’s in the future for Fireside Productions? The filmmakers are in the midst of making a documentary about Eau Claire’s kubb culture. Look for that film in early 2026, and learn more about the filmmakers and their projects at firesideproductionsllc.com.
Tune into PBS Wisconsin at 7pm on Tuesday, May 20 to watch When Rubber Hit the Road. Limited DVDs are available for purchase online now.
