The SouthCoast Pet and Pet Owner That Look the Most Alike: How Voting Works & How to Win

WBSM runs a SouthCoast pet-lookalike vote built around a top 10

The SouthCoast Pet and Pet Owner That Look the Most Alike is a pet-lookalike vote the radio station WBSM runs at wbsm.com for the SouthCoast region of Massachusetts, the corner of the state the contest's own name already points to. WBSM is registered as a Massachusetts radio station, and the contest lives on WBSM's own domain rather than a separate voting platform.

The format is a two-step one: pet owners submit a photo of themselves alongside the pet they think they resemble, WBSM narrows that full field down to a top 10, and only those finalists go on to a public vote that settles a grand prize winner. A submission that does not make the top 10 never reaches the voting stage at all.

Two confirmed editions, four years apart

WBSM's own pages confirm this contest ran in 2021 and again in 2025, four years apart rather than in consecutive years. That gap does not mean the contest sat idle the whole time; it means only those two years carry a dated page WBSM has actually published, not a claim that every year between them also had one.

What comes after 2025 is not yet on the page. Exactly when WBSM opens the next round of submissions, how long the top-10 window stays open, or when the public vote for a grand prize winner closes is not printed anywhere on wbsm.com right now; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. A per-voter limit or eligibility rule for the public-vote stage is missing in the same way, so treating either detail as settled ahead of the next cycle would be guessing past what WBSM has actually published.

How a SouthCoast supporter actually votes for a favorite pair

Taking part starts with a submission, not a vote: a pet owner sends in a photo showing off the resemblance between themselves and their pet. WBSM then does the narrowing, cutting the full set of entries down to a top 10 before anyone outside the station gets a ballot to mark.

Once that top 10 is set, WBSM opens the public vote on its own page at wbsm.com, and a SouthCoast supporter picks a favorite among those ten pairs rather than choosing from every photo submitted. The station settles a grand prize winner once that public vote closes.

Because the field is pre-narrowed, a pet owner's most direct path to more support starts before the public vote even opens: making the top 10 in the first place, then asking friends, family and neighbors across the SouthCoast to actually visit wbsm.com once voting is live.

Where this pet vote sits beside Massachusetts' other polls

WBSM's contest is not the only public vote Massachusetts readers can take part in, but most of the state's other well-known ballots are business or community "best of" polls rather than a pet-and-owner lookalike contest.

The closest match in kind is the MetroWest Humane Society Pet Calendar Photo Contest, another Massachusetts pet-photo vote, though it runs under a humane society in a different part of the state rather than a SouthCoast radio station. Best of Boston and Best of Cape Cod sit further apart still: business-award ballots with many categories, not a single pet vote with one grand prize winner.

Building real support for a SouthCoast pet-and-owner entry

Because WBSM narrows every submission down to a top 10 before the public vote even opens, the earliest and most direct lever a pet owner has is making that cut in the first place: a clear, well-lit photo that actually shows the resemblance the contest is judging. WBSM's own page does not spell out a stance on paid or automated support for the later public vote, so nothing here states either an allowance or a ban for that stage.

Once in the top 10, real reach across the SouthCoast, family, neighbors, a local pet-owning group, tends to matter more than a single push right before voting closes. Building real momentum for an online ballot covers tactics that apply once WBSM's public-vote stage is actually live.