WE ARE NOT ALONE - BBC RADIO 4 / BBC SOUNDS
ILLUMINATED PODCAST
PRODUCED BY OLIVER SANDERS
COMMISSIONED BY BBC RADIO 4
In 1980, Prestonwood Mall in Dallas contacted the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) with a unique request. It was the opening weekend of The Empire Strikes Back, and the mall’s marketing team wanted an additional attraction. Sensing an opportunity, John P. Timmerman, the owner of a family air-conditioning business in Ohio and a dedicated volunteer at CUFOS, packed his car with an eye-catching collection of UFO photographs and embarked on a cross-country journey for the weekend.
What began as a simple photography exhibit turned into a twelve-year research expedition across the malls of America. In front of those plexiglass panels, between the skylights and shiny floors, Timmerman interviewed curious shoppers with stories to tell. What he captured on his small tape recorder was the “raw material of ufology”: candid, first-hand accounts of strange lights, silver discs, and close encounters.
Between 1980 and 1992, Timmerman recorded 1,179 witness reports across 120 tapes that cover every aspect of the UFO phenomena. The collection is considered one of the largest ever put together by a single investigator.
John P. Timmerman spent years travelling far from his quiet family life in the Midwest searching for insights into our place in the universe. What he found, amongst the hum of escalators and muzak, was connection — or ‘contact’ — with thousands of ordinary people, all searching for the same thing.
“There is no introduction – and no explanation – and the only interruptions during the programme are the clicks of a tape ending, the ‘this is side two, cassette one’, type markers made by Timmerman himself and, in the final three minutes, some appreciative reflections from Timmerman’s son. I became quickly hooked.”
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Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 - Sunday 13th September 7.15pm + Thursday 17th September 3.30pm
Audio Production and Sound Design: Oliver Sanders
Executive Producer: Lucia Scazzocchio
Archive Digitisation & Co-Production: James Timmerman
Special thanks for the support of Dr Mark Rodeghier, Dr Michael Swords, Dr Michael West, The Center For UFO Studies, The Timmerman Family, Dominic De Vere, Francesca Thakorlal, Ben Plumb and Hannah Kemp-Welch.