Physical To Digital, How A Towson Business Is Keeping Memories Alive

In a nondescript office building behind the hustle and bustle of Total Wine, Gregg Landry is working to keep memories alive.

Landry is the creator, owner, and operator of Towson Transfers, a digital transfer company aimed at helping customers turn their old CDs, tapes, and VHSs into digital files. Using a large machine, Landry goes through old tapes and CDs frame-by-frame as a computer digitizes them into the file types we are all familiar with today.

Landry founded Towson Transfers in 2020 to provide the service he had been asked about for years. According to Landry, he feels like this is the perfect job for him.

"I decided that I really like meeting with people. I like hearing stories. I like taking care of people. I like people trusting me to get important things done for them."

Before founding Towson Transfers, Landry created commercials for some of the biggest brands in Maryland, including Royal Farms.

"Do you remember Haloti Ngata used to do pitches for royal farms?" He asked. "we did those."

Through his work, Landry has met some of the biggest celebrities in the Baltimore area, such as Jim Palmer, Cal Ripken, Brooks Robinson, and Michael Phelps. He says the idea for this business came from years in the film industry.

"People would come to me and say, Hey, you're in the media business; I've got an old tape, can you transfer it to DVD?"

According to Landry, the process can be very time-consuming. "It goes click, click, click, and it makes a very accurate reading of what the proper speed should be," he said. "That will just click away for, you know, sometimes, depending on the size of the reel, might be an hour two or three, or even four hours that it just clicks away."

Towson Transfers has found success due to Landry's personalized approach. He says that customers want to ensure their memories are handled with care.

"People come to me wanting that face-to-face, hand-to-hand handshake contact because these items they share with me are precious, priceless memories."

The films he digitizes can be anything from weddings to old high school football games, including one recent customer who brought a video of Perry Hall's 1972 high school football championship.

"They're telling me stories about what surrounds these tapes, he said." "So it's been really a nice way to connect with the community."

Landry occasionally deals with more serious topics too. Recently, he has been working on a collection of home videos that will be shown before a court during a death sentence mitigation trial.

"These tapes are going to help try to paint the picture of this person's upbringing. These are family videos from that person," he said. "Hopefully, they can use those in the court to help understand what the circumstances might have been for this person growing up to help them avoid the death penalty."

Landry says he is excited to continue helping people preserve their memories and hopes to continue meeting community members and hearing their stories. If anyone needs their old tapes, cassettes, or CDs preserved, Landry is there to listen to their story and save their memories.

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