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BIOGRAPHY
Tom Terry is a broadcaster and author currently serving as President of Eagle Television in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. In addition to his work with Eagle Television, Terry writes a regular blog about life, politics, and society in Mongolia.
Early Career
Terry began his broadcast career in 1979 as an intern with KHYT radio in Tucson, Arizona. A top rated station, KHYT was lead by veteran broadcaster Rich “Brother” Robbin. Following his intern stint with KHYT, Terry bounced from a mobile DJ company to minor DJ work in a Tucson bar until he became a born-again Christian in 1982. Shortly thereafter he became a weekend DJ at KVOI where he quickly ascended to the weekday morning show and Operations Manager in 1983.
KLYT
In 1988 Terry moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to take the position of Operations Manager at KLYT, a long-standing Christian Hit format station. Low ratings and audience response drove Terry and General Manager Randy Rich to make radical changes to KLYT’s format along with initiating multiple outreach strategies that eventually helped make KLYT one of the most well-known and respected radio stations in market.
Arguably KLYT’s most important social outreach was the anti-drug program, “Yes to Life” (YTL) featuring station manager and former NFL player Randy Rich presenting 2-3 anti-drug messages a week in public schools statewide. Terry’s management of the program during 6 1⁄2 years of its 10 year run helped make the “Yes to Life” program a cornerstone of the KLYT’s work with YTL presentations held in 2-3 schools each week, statewide. “Yes to Life,” became the springboard used by KLYT to bring the station’s live broadcasts onto public school campuses where students often received print materials, and participated in radio programming advocating to the Bible’s influence. Rich was often able to talk openly about his faith in Jesus Christ during the in-school presentations. The “Yes to Life” program was eventually forced out of Albuquerque Public Schools (two years after Terry’s departure from KLYT) on the grounds that it violated the separation of church and state.
In 1991 Terry became involved in the controversy surrounding the showing of the movie The Last Temptation of Christ to gifted students at La Cueva High School in Albuquerque. Multiple discussions and radio interviews with the teacher, Joyce Briscoe, who showed the movie, did not result in any changes over the issue. However, the situation led him into conservative social commentary. Within weeks Terry launched the live 5-minute twice-daily Commenterry, during KLYT’s morning and evening drive time. Tom Terry’s Daily Commenterry quickly became a highly listened-to program by Christian conservatives.
Cutting Edge Magazine
Shortly after launching Terry’s daily commentary, KLYT’s management named Terry as editor of the newly created Cutting Edge Magazine. Terry served as Editor for four years. Cutting Edge greatly expanded Terry’s influence among New Mexico’s social conservatives as Terry produced articles on a variety of controversial subjects including abortion, AIDS, education policy, medical ethics, the welfare state, and abuses by social service workers. Cutting Edge quickly became known as the print-platform for Terry’s views on social and political issues as he explored each issue at length in comparison to Old Testament principles of government and moral values.
Terry’s most important work with Cutting Edge included detailed research published in the magazine as an annual report on pornography-related sex crimes. The articles used Albuquerque police statistics to trace sexually oriented crimes, demonstrating a high degree of correlation between Albuquerque’s rate of sex crimes and the location of sexually oriented businesses. Terry’s annual tracking was able to demonstrate significantly increased rates of sex crimes in areas where sexually oriented business were newly opened or relocated.
Terry’s most controversial issue of Cutting Edge was a 20,000-word article on gun control. The magazine cover featured a pistol with a large bold title, “Why you Should Own One of These.” Within days of release more than 25,000 copies of the magazine were distributed.
During his time at KLYT Terry also briefly served as producer of the nationally syndicated radio program, Calvary Connection, with Calvary Chapel of Albuquerque pastor, Skip Heitzig. Terry finally left KLYT in December 1995 to pursue media missionary work with Campus Crusade for Christ, International.
The Mission Field
In 1997 Terry joined the President’s Office of the late Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. Terry worked on national syndication of the radio program, WorldChangers Radio, produced to help Christians learn how to share their faith (WorldChangers Radio was in no way affiliated with Creflo Dollar ministries). The program was short-lived, eventually transforming into a daily short-form program, The Lighthouse Report, just as Terry’s stint in the President’s Office was ending.
In 2000 Terry moved to the Islamic world where he helped a partnership of organizations launch a radio project sharing the Gospel with Muslims.
During his time with Campus Crusade Terry also launched a personal Internet project, Aboutisa.com (now defunct), targeting Muslims with the Gospel. The site served as the download point for five booklets about Islam and Christianity authored by Terry, the most popular being, Does Allah Love Me? Terry still maintains downloadable versions of the booklets on his current web blog.
During his final two years with Campus Crusade, Terry worked almost exclusively on the website, using it as a platform to conduct live online sessions sharing his faith with Muslims in the Middle East and Asia. Terry abandoned the project in 2002 when took up residence in Mongolia.
Terry left Campus Crusade for Christ in July 2002 intending to renew his radio career in the United States. However, circumstances provided Terry an opportunity to take over the management of Eagle Television in Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar.
Eagle Television, Mongolia
Upon assuming the leadership of Eagle Television in November 2002, Terry quickly moved to transform the TV station’s struggling news and Christian programming in keeping with his vision of political freedom and the advocacy of Christianity. Terry proved to be a magnet of controversy as he opened the station to uncensored live commentary from viewers and launched the nation’s first live international news coverage. Uncensored public commentary was a radical change in Mongolia’s media and political landscape. The move sent shock waves through the nation’s ruling political party. Newspaper articles and criticism from public officials on Mongolia’s State Television (MNTV) provided Terry with opportunity to openly advocate increased freedom of speech and press through television, and he launched a strategy to dramatically increase public input into Eagle TV’s on-air operations.
At the same time the station’s shareholders were embroiled in a long-standing disagreement over issues of contribution and control of the newly dynamic TV station. One month after achieving its highest-ever ratings, the shareholders abruptly closed the station as a result of legal threats and corporate infighting. The government of Mongolia, controlled by the former communist party, quickly moved to revoke the broadcast license to prevent the station from re-launching its operations. Terry’s tenure lasted only six months.
During the eighteen months that Eagle Television was off the air, Terry launched a research project on the impact of Christian missionary work on the advancement of freedom and democracy around the world. Upon concluding his research in 2006, he published the book, Faith and Freedom: How the Missionary Principle Facilitates Political Freedom. Faith and Freedom was Terry’s second book, following the 2005 release of the short fiction collection, When Shadows Dream: Twilight.
Following Eagle TV's closure, AMONG Foundation, the American shareholder of the former Eagle TV, formed Eagle Broadcasting Company, appointing Terry as Managing Director, and charging him with re-launching Eagle TV as a cable-only TV channel. In fear of possible legal action against the new company for procuring the name and identity of the former station, Terry moved quickly and quietly to acquire resources and agreements to enable the station’s launch. The new Eagle TV began broadcasting on SANSAR Cable as Mongolia’s first all-news channel on January 21st, 2005.
Terry’s formatting of the new Eagle Television took Mongolia’s capital city by surprise. Instead of formatting two half-hour newscast a day, Terry launched a 24/7 news format with uncensored public commentary during live newscasts as a cornerstone of the station. In addition, Terry launched the nation’s first live coverage of in-country breaking news including the only all-day live coverage of Mongolia’s 2005 presidential election.
The increasing popularity of Eagle Television’s cable operations drove the former business partners AMONG and Mongolian Media Corporation back to the negotiating table with Terry and Golomt Bank President Bayasgalan taking the lead. Extensive negotiations over most of 2005 resulted in an agreement between the parties for the Mongolian side to acquire the broadcast license for terrestrial Channel 8, and Eagle Broadcasting Company to have exclusive use of the channel for ten years, while exercising exclusive control over all television content. The parties reconciled their differences and signed a co-operative agreement in September 2005. Based upon the agreement the Mongolian government restored the license for Channel 8, paving the way for Eagle TV to return to its former channel.
On October 22, 2005 Eagle Television launched its Channel 8 broadcasts with live all-day coverage of U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s visit to Mongolia. Eagle TV’s coverage became the most watched of all stations.
Under Terry's leadership Eagle TV garnished its highest audience in its history. According to the June 2006 survey of Mongolia's Press Institute, Eagle TV currently has twelve local competitors.
Eagle TV Controversies
Shortly after the re-launch on Channel 8, Terry moved to increase the station’s Christian programming. He also dramatically expanded Eagle TV’s live public opinion calls during the news. Terry’s moves strengthened the station’s reputation for freedom of speech and press leading to Eagle TV being selected over Mongolia’s State television (MNTV) for an exclusive interview with U.S. President George W. Bush in the White House. The interview and all-day coverage of the event resulted in a nearly weeklong attack by MNTV against Eagle TV and the U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia, accusing both of deceiving the White House about Eagle TV’s operations in Mongolia.
During President Bush’s November 21st 2005 visit to Mongolia, Mongolian CIA Director Bilegt sent a letter to Terry accusing Eagle TV of involvement in an organized “conspiracy to take over the government illegally,” and airing “programs that show specific methods how to do a crime.” Terry protested the government letter to then Prime Minister Tsakhiagiyn Elbegdorj. Within days the CIA rescinded the letter and issued an apology.
As Eagle TV’s news operations expanded in January 2006 the news staff launched extensive live coverage of the breakdown of the government and eventual ouster of Prime Minister Elbedorj from power. Some public officials blamed Terry for stirring up political trouble. With renewed political protests against the government in March and April, Terry began blogging his disagreement with the protesters online, but insisted the TV station remain neutral in all coverage. Regardless, on April 7th the Truth newspaper published an article declaring Terry a terrorist against the State and calling upon the government to investigate Terry, monitor his activities and communications, and shut down Eagle TV.
In June 2006 things took a turn for the worst when Parliament Speaker Nyamdorj delivered and impassioned speech on the floor of the parliament chamber against Eagle Television, calling for the Foreign Minister, Justice Minister, and Prime Minister to investigate Terry’s activities and the policies of the TV station. Speaking of Terry’s management of the station the Speaker charged him with violating “the Mongolian people’s sovereignty and independence.” In a second session in July the Speaker added that Eagle Television was “appealing to dissolve the Great State Khural [parliament] and to gun down the Mongolian government leader.”
Controversy over Eagle TV died away until Mongolia's parliamentary elections in June 2008. Following live broadcast of a massive riot two days after the election, Mongolian parliament members began protesting the influence of Eagle TV's approach to media freedom, going so far as to begin discussions on legislating away foreign ownership and control of media in Mongolia. During a four day State of Emergency the government forcibly closed all TV stations, then took over control of State TV. State TV aired propaganda, under the control of Prime Minister Bayar's office, accusing Eagle TV of fomenting the riots, and featured interviews with officials and competitors accusing Terry of treason against the State for Eagle TV's live coverage of the riots.
Publications
ThomasTerry.com
http://thomasterry.com/blog/staticpages/index.php/20060714160025833