Image © Nick Layton, 1984

Time Listener was in fact an audio off-shoot from a standard fanzine, Time Watcher, which had been devised and edited by David Stead. David produced three issues, culminating in a Jon Pertwee Special. At this point, he handed the reins over to fellow Hampshire Local Group member William ‘Bill’ Baggs, who – confusingly – began his editorship with another third issue of Time Watcher. Either he hadn't been paying attention or was trying to work out if the readership was...

In September 1984, alongside the printed edition of Bill's first issue, another title on cassette was offered simultaneously to readers of the DWAS newsletter Celestial Toyroom. Titled so as to make clear its brotherly relationship to Time Watcher, this was called Time Listener, and was edited and produced by Bill’s fellow Hampshire Local Group member Nick Layton.

Released in September 1984, Time Listener 1 was billed as “the first truly hi-fi tape” and featured an interview conducted by Bill with series producer, John Nathan-Turner at the Doctor Who production office. Cannily, Bill utilised the results of his endeavours at the BBC across both his printed fanzine and Nick's tapezine, meaning that both titles benefitted. During the discussion, Nathan-Turner was coaxed into revealing a few tidbits concerning the then upcoming 22nd season of Doctor Who and gave some very honest answers to certain questions, including the admission that he harboured an ambition to one day become Controller of BBC1 - which of course was never to be.

Time Watcher came to a natural conclusion after Bill’s first issue as he became the driving force behind the highly regarded series of unofficial Doctor Who audio plays produced by Audio Visuals, a non-profit making fan organisation. As Nick Layton was also heavily involved in this venture, Time Listener followed suit and only the one issue was ever produced. However, Nick suggests that there might have been another reason: “I probably had a life, or was exceptionally lazy, which I was a bit then!”

Commenting in The Tapezine Zone section of Zero Room Audiozine Issue 7 (April 1985), David Balston was suitably impressed: “Time Listener is a well-produced ’zine. Excellent opening, and music is used to good advantage. The articles were on the whole very good, although I found the JN-T interview rather uninteresting. In fact, I fast forward past this bit now. Nicholas Briggs’ Look Back in Vortex at the early Baker stories was a very good analysis but left me feeling… so what? But on the whole this is an excellent ’zine and should be bought immediately.”