Best of the Townsquare Media Choice Awards (KHMO): How Voting Works & How to Win

What are the Best of the Townsquare Media Choice Awards and who runs them?

The Best of the Townsquare Media Choice Awards is a listener recognition programme run by Townsquare Media, the broadcast company behind Quincy, Illinois station 1070 KHMO-AM. Its 2026 ballot asks the public to choose favorite local businesses, restaurants, shops and service providers across the station's Tri-State market, a listening area anchored in western Illinois that reaches across the border toward Hannibal, Missouri.

KHMO anchors the programme firmly in western Illinois. The contest rules the station publishes direct rule questions to its business office at 408 N. 24th Street in Quincy, staffed Monday through Friday during normal business hours, which is also where the station's general contest terms can be reviewed in person. The awards belong to the best-of family of community ballots, in which a local publisher invites its audience to crown hometown favorites, and the voting page keeps that framing front and centre throughout the round.

When did the KHMO choice awards open and close in 2026?

The 2026 cycle ran a nomination stage first. Nominations opened Monday, January 19 and stayed open through February 6, letting listeners and business fans put local favorites forward. Once that stretch closed, the station handed the slate to the public: the voting page announced, "The nominations are in, so now let the voting begin," and listener voting opened on February 9 with a planned run through February 20. The article carrying the launch was published on February 9, 2026.

On edition standing, 2026 is the only year the programme's own pages confirm. The station's recap afterward thanked everyone who nominated and voted in the "1st Annual Townsquare Media Listener Choice Awards". This is the first confirmed edition; whether it returns next year is not yet published; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Several facts stay off the page. The station prints no category roster on the voting page, so the slate for any given round is visible only on the live form. No per-person vote cap or repeat-voting rule accompanies the ballot either, and no eligibility text for nominees has been posted with it. The station has also not named a month for any future cycle, so nothing beyond 2026 can be planned from what is in print.

How does a supporter cast a ballot in the KHMO listener awards?

Taking part means visiting the voting page KHMO publishes at khmoradio.com and working through the nominated businesses category by category. The page's own instruction is to "Cast your vote for top local restaurants, shops, and service providers today," which describes the whole exercise: read the slate, mark a favorite, send the selection in. No download and no payment sit between a supporter and the ballot.

Beyond the marking and submitting, the form's own prompts govern everything else. Selections, any revision step and any identity check happen on the page itself, so a supporter who usually votes in other community contests should follow this ballot's instructions rather than assume habits carry over. KHMO promotes a free mobile app beside its articles for listening and alerts, but the awards ballot is reached through the web page, not through that app.

The shape of the round matters as much as the mechanics. Because the slate is fixed before the public vote begins, a supporter arrives to find named businesses already in place, and the job is choosing among them before the window shuts. Arriving early leaves room to work through every category; arriving on the final day compresses those choices.

How does this ballot sit beside other Illinois best-of programmes?

Half a dozen Illinois programmes of the same best-of shape sit near this one in coverage. Sauk Valley Favorites serves the Sterling area in the north of the state, CommunityVotes Peoria IL and CommunityVotes Rockford run in downstate and northern cities, the Chicago Reader's Best of Chicago and Chicago Style Weddings Best Of cover the metro, and the BAGI Parade of Homes People's Choice follows home building. Each is anchored to a city or region inside Illinois alone.

What separates the KHMO ballot is its broadcast engine and its map. Townsquare Media drives the vote from a radio station, and the market it serves ignores the state line: listeners in Quincy, Illinois vote alongside audiences over the border in Hannibal, Missouri, so a winning restaurant or shop here draws on support from both sides of that line rather than from a single Illinois city. That also means the competitive set reflects who has listeners and who advertises with the station, not a chamber membership or a municipal boundary, which changes how a local business should think about its rivals.

How can a business strengthen its support during the KHMO voting window?

A business chasing stronger support in a KHMO choice-awards round faces a compressed schedule, since the 2026 vote opened February 9 and finished February 20, so a push has to land inside the window itself rather than trail behind it. The station's own page leans on sharing, placing Facebook and Twitter buttons beside the voting article, and regulars who see those prompts act on them.

The cycle's structure also rewards early presence, because the nomination stretch that fed the 2026 ballot shut down before voting even opened. A business whose customers put its name forward in that first phase starts the public vote with a spot on the slate already secured, while a name that misses nomination waits a whole cycle for another chance. Questions about outside help, promotion rules or vote sourcing belong with the station, which handles contest inquiries at its Quincy office on weekdays. For wider tactics that suit public community ballots, the votes guide collects approaches that work without touching the ballot's rules.