Tom Terry is an American author and broadcaster currently residing in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Terry serves as President of Eagle Broadcasting Company, the first independent television station in Mongolia.

Early Career

Terry began his career in 1979 as an intern with KHYT radio in Tucson, Arizona. In 1982 Terry became a Christian, then moved his career interests from secular to Christian broadcasting. He became a weekend radio announcer at KVOI in Tucson where he quickly ascended to the weekday morning show and position of Operations Manager in 1983.

KLYT

In 1988 Terry moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to take the position of Operations Manager at KLYT radio. Low ratings and audience response drove Terry and General Manager Randy Rich to make radical changes to KLYT’s format and outreach programs. Those changes restored the station's popularity and respect among radio stations and parachurch ministries in New Mexico.

Among KLYT’s outreach programs was the anti-drug initiative “Yes to Life” (YTL). Station Manager and former NFL player Randy Rich delivered weekly anti-drug messages in public schools statewide as part of the program. Terry and Rich soon formed a partnership with the D.A.R.E. program, which helped to further deepen the programs influence in the school system. “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 evangelical Christianity. Terry managed the YTL program for six years.

In 1991 Terry became involved in the controversy surrounding the showing of the movie The Last Temptation of Christ to gifted students at Albuquerque's La Cueva High School. The controversy launched Terry into conservative social commentary. 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.

Cutting Edge Magazine

Shortly after launching the daily commentary, Terry was named as editor of the newly created Cutting Edge Magazine. Cutting Edge greatly expanded Terry’s influence among New Mexico’s social conservatives. The magazine produced articles on a variety of subjects including abortion, AIDS, education policy, medical ethics, the welfare state, and abuses by social service workers. Terry served as editor for four years.

During his time at KLYT Terry also served briefly 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 Campus Crusade for Christ, working in the President’s Office of Dr. Bill Bright. Terry worked on national syndication of Dr. Bright's radio properties. In 2001, Terry's area of specialization moved to the Islamic world where he aided the launch of radio projects sharing the Gospel with Muslims.

Eagle TV—Mongolia

Terry left Campus Crusade's headquarters in July 2002 to take over the management of Eagle Television in Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar. At the time, 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), a divisioin of The Bodi Group.

The station became both successful and controversial with uncensored live commentary from viewers and live international news coverage. Despite its success with viewers, infighting between the shareholders resulted in a shutdown of the operation and the loss of its broadcast license in spring 2003.

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 defunct operation. After Eagle TV's closure, AMONG Foundation formed Eagle Broadcasting Company, and appointed Terry as Managing Director, and charged him with re-launching Eagle TV as a cable-only TV channel. About six months later, the new Eagle TV began broadcasting on SANSAR Cable as Mongolia’s first all-news cable channel with uncensored public commentary during live newscasts. The return of Eagle TV to Mongolia proved so favorable that a new license was issued to the former partners and a cooperative effort struck to return Eagle TV to terrestrial channel 8. Broadcasts on channel 8 resumed on October 22, 2005.

Books & Writing

Terry is the author of several books and eBooks (see here), and blogs about life in Mongolia and the ministry of Eagle TV.

Biography content adapted from Wikipedia, with corrections.