Townsquare Listener Choice Awards (KICK FM): How Voting Works & How to Win

What are the Townsquare Listener Choice Awards, and who is behind them?

Townsquare Media, a large American radio company, runs the Listener Choice Awards through its Quincy station KICK FM, whose site at 979kickfm.com carries both the ballot and the results coverage. This is a best-of style competition for local businesses rather than for people, songs or entertainers: supporters vote for the shops, salons and trades they believe serve the station's Tri-State area best, a coverage zone the station's own posts tie to Illinois and to Missouri across the river.

The program grew out of ordinary station life rather than out of a separate awards foundation. KICK FM's daily lineup, from Curt and Samm in the Morning to Taste of Country Nights, is built on the same small-market relationship with listeners that a business popularity ballot depends on, and the station promoted the vote to that existing audience instead of to a national one. The station billed the debut run prominently: its nomination notice opened with the line "Nominations are now open for the 1st Annual Townsquare Media Choice Awards!", wording that roots the whole exercise in the station's country-radio identity rather than in any national awards brand.

When did the 2026 vote run, and what did it produce?

The station's nominations post accepted entries for the "Townsquare Media Choice Awards" through February 6, 2026; it does not print the day nominations opened. Voting then began on February 9, and the station's notice put it plainly: "Voting is open now through February 20, giving you the chance to choose the best local businesses in each category."

The same article reminded readers that the tally came together only after weeks of voting, which fits the compressed February schedule laid out above.

The winners coverage names Magic Nails for nails, Color Me Tan Spa and Summit Spa for tanning, Heartland Auto & Towing for towing and car service, Summy Tire & Auto for repair work and Peter's Auto Body for collision service.

The 2026 posts leave the full slate of categories, any per-supporter ceiling and eligibility unstated; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. This is the first confirmed edition; whether it returns next year is not yet published; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How does a supporter actually cast a vote?

The act of voting is straightforward. During the February window a supporter opens the Listener Choice ballot on 979kickfm.com, moves through the business categories, and picks a favorite local firm in each line of service worth weighing in on, from hair and nail care to towing, tire work and body repair. The pick is sent through the page itself, and no separate software or membership is involved.

Several practical points were simply never addressed in the station's posts. Nothing in the voting notice describes a sign-in step, so a supporter should assume the form works without an account until the live page says otherwise. The posts are likewise silent on whether someone may return on later days and pick again in the same category, and they do not mention a write-in option for businesses that missed the nomination cut. Where a rule matters to a campaign, the live ballot during an open window is the only place it will actually appear.

The calendar shapes the campaign as much as the click does. With voting compressed into the stretch between February 9 and February 20, a business's supporters have a narrow run to organize their circles, which is why reminders during the window matter more than they would in a poll that stays open for months.

How does this ballot compare with other Illinois best-of contests?

Illinois already hosts a spread of public-vote programs, and the Listener Choice Awards occupy a distinct corner of it. The nearest structural cousins in the state index are the two CommunityVotes ballots, CommunityVotes Peoria IL and CommunityVotes Rockford, which run citywide community tallies, and Sauk Valley Favorites, which serves Sterling and the surrounding valley in the same small-market spirit.

At the metropolitan end sit Best of Chicago (Chicago Reader), an alt-weekly poll with a huge city audience, and Chicago Style Weddings Best Of, which narrows to a single wedding niche. BAGI Parade of Homes People's Choice takes yet another angle, attaching its vote to a builders' showcase.

Against that company, the Townsquare ballot stands out on three points: it is run by a radio station rather than a paper or a civic group, its nominee pool is weighted toward everyday service trades such as tanning and towing, and its window is a short February run ending in a single results day. For a small Tri-State business, that combination makes the station's award a neighborhood contest first and a marketing trophy second.

What can a nominated business do to widen its support?

A nominee's realistic levers follow from the ballot's shape. Because voting ran only from February 9 through February 20 and the category list is compact, the payoff comes from reminding existing customers early and often: a counter sign, a receipt message or a social post pointing at the station's ballot does more in a compressed window than months of quiet goodwill. The station's posts offer no published guidance on outside voting help for this program, so any campaign should stay inside whatever the live form allows.

A simple habit helps here too: whenever a business asks customers to take part, handing them the exact address, https://979kickfm.com/townsquare-listener-choice-2026/, spares them a search and keeps the traffic on the genuine KICK FM page instead of a lookalike poll.

For broader technique, the guide to getting more votes online covers outreach that works on public ballots of this kind, and the award-votes service overview explains how ordered support is arranged in general. Neither resource changes the station's own rules, and paid effort cannot promise a finishing position in a public tally; it only widens the base a business starts from.