Tom Terry
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Tom Terry (1963 - ) is an American author and broadcaster currently residing in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Terry is the author of two books (When Shadows Dream: Twilight, and Faith and Freedom), and writes a regular blog about Christianity, politics, and media in Mongolia.
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[edit] Books
While serving as the Managing Director of Eagle Television in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Terry launched a research project on the impact of Christian missionary work on the advancement of freedom and democracy around the world. Terry interviewed missionaries representing work in 24 countries along with researching the history of western Christianity and political movements. Terry's research lead to publishing his second book, Faith and Freedom: How the Missionary Principle Facilitates Political Freedom.
Portions of "Faith and Freedom" tell the story of Eagle TV, using the TV station's work in journalism and Christian missions as an example for the advocacy of Christian principles in media and society. While the book advocates Christian principles in governance, it also denounces the creation of “Christian countries” and theocracies, claims to document how the principles of the Great Commission from the Bible have facilitated modern-day political freedom.
“Faith and Freedom” was Terry’s second book, following the 2005 release of the short fiction collection, When Shadows Dream: Twilight.
Terry's third book is a science fiction novel titled, "Between Time: City of Heaven," slated for a 2007 release.
[edit] Early career
Terry began his broadcast career in 1979 as an intern with KHYT radio in Tucson, Arizona, 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 radio announcer at KVOI in Tucson where he quickly ascended to the weekday morning show and become Operations Manager in 1983.
[edit] KLYT
In 1988 Terry moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to take the position of Operations Manager at KLYT. Low ratings and audience response drove Terry and General Manager Randy Rich to make radical changes to KLYT’s format along with initiating 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. During Terry’s management of the program during 6 ½ years of its 10 year run, “Yes to Life” became a cornerstone of KLYT’s work. Terry and Rich soon formed a partnership with the D.A.R.E. program, which helped to further deepen the YTL's influence. “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 the Bible. 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. Terry's interviews with the teacher who showed the movie, Joyce Briscoe, did not result in any changes, however, the situation launched Terry into conservative social commentary and politics, using KLYT as a platform to advance a socially conservative political agenda. Within weeks of the controversy 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.
In 1993 Terry’s daily radio commentary came to an abrupt end following on-air comments he made about the biblical figures of kings Saul and David in comparison to the election between George Bush and Bill Clinton. Pastors with Albuquerque mega-church, Victory Love Fellowship demanded an accounting from Terry for his supposed endorsement of Bill Clinton for president. In a meeting with Senior Pastor Rob Carman and KLYT management, Terry protested stating that the church’s leadership misunderstood the broadcast and that he did not endorse Clinton, that in fact he opposed Clinton’s presidency on ideological and moral grounds. Terry's assurances were not enough. Carman threatening to stop the church's significant financial support of KLYT if Terry’s broadcasts continued. The pressure proved to be too much and Terry’s commentaries were canceled a week later.
[edit] Cutting Edge Magazine
Shortly after launching Terry’s daily commentary, Terry was named as editor of the newly created Cutting Edge Magazine. He served as Editor for four years. Cutting Edge greatly expanded Terry’s influence among New Mexico’s social conservatives as the magazine 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.
Terry’s most controversial issue of Cutting Edge was a 20,000 word article on gun control. The magazine cover featured a pistol with large bold letters, “Why you Should Own One of These.” Within days of release more than 25,000 copies of the magazine flew off store shelves. Terry’s article earned him the ire of some New Mexico lawmakers including a popular State Senator who accused Terry of advocating violence and vigilantism.
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.
[edit] The Mission Field
In 1997 Terry joined the President’s Office of the late Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. He worked on national syndication of the radio program, “WorldChangers Radio.” 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 2001 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, targeting Muslims with the Gospel. The site garnished thousands of visitors each month, eventually becoming a target of Islamic ire through chat rooms and forums. The site also served as the download point for five booklets about Islam and Christianity authored by Terry, the most popular being, “Does Allah Love Me?,” which eventually wound up on numerous websites devoted to Christian-Muslim dialog and evangelism. 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. He abandoned the project in 2002 when took up residence in Mongolia.
[edit] Eagle TV - 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. From 1994 to 2002 Eagle Television was operated on terrestrial Channel 8 by Mongolian Broadcasting Company (MBC). MBC was a joint venture of the American nonprofit, AMONG Foundation, and Mongolia Media Corporation (MMC).
Upon assuming the leadership of MBC 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 run television 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, unbeknown to Eagle TV’s viewers, the shareholders were embroiled in long-standing and severe disagreements 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 MBC’s broadcast license preventing the station from re-launching its operations. Terry’s tenure at MBC lasted only six months.
Terry remained in Mongolia during the next year, employed by the former TV station’s American shareholder, AMONG Foundation, in hopes of re-launching the now defunct operation. Multiple negotiations with the Mongolian shareholders and ruling party politicians failed to restore the status of MBC.
One year after the Eagle TV's closure, AMONG Foundation formed Eagle Broadcasting Company, appointing Terry as Managing Director, and charging him with re-launching Eagle TV as a cable 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 to acquire resources and agreements to enable the station’s launch. In less than 6 months the new Eagle TV began broadcasting on SANSAR Cable as Mongolia’s first all-news cable channel.
The format 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 MMC 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, and exercising exclusive control over all television content during that period. 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.
[edit] Eagle TV Controversies
Shortly after the re-launch on Channel 8, Terry moved to increase the station’s Christian programming. Within months Terry began programming 3-hour blocks of Christian history and educational programming 3 days a week. He also expanded Eagle TV’s live public opinion calls during the news. The 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 in November 2005. The interview and all-day coverage of the event resulted in a nearly week long 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 intimating that Eagle TV was involved in organized “conspiracy to take over the government illegally,” and airing “programs that show specific methods how to do a crime.” Terry immediately 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, Terry began taking less and less of a role in helping the station’s news department. At the same time 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. On April 7th the “Truth” newspaper published an article declaring Terry a terrorist against the State and calling upon the government to investigate and monitor his activities and communications, and shut down Eagle TV.
In June 2006 Parliament Speaker Nyamdorj delivered a 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.”
Terry has not responded to the charges made by the Speaker. In August 2006 Speaker Nyamdorj made a live hour-long appearance on Eagle TV, and when questioned about his statement, toned down his rhetoric. Nothing further on the matter has been heard from either party.
[edit] Publications
American Genesis (nonfiction, history - 1992, 2001)
Basic Christian Broadcasting (nonfiction - 1991, English, Russian, Turkish)
Production & Copywriting for Christian Radio (nonfiction - 1992, English)
When Shadows Dream: Twilight (fiction - 2005)
Faith and Freedom (nonfiction - 2006)
