For The Most Inspiring Bluefriday Honoree: How Voting Works & How to Win

What the BlueFriday honoree vote is, and why it is not a best-of business poll

For The Most Inspiring Bluefriday Honoree is a public-vote award that belongs to WKXW, the New Jersey news-talk radio station whose coverage lives at nj1015.com. It grows out of the station's #BlueFriday feature, which the station's own reporting says started in December 2015 during a live broadcast. Rather than asking readers to rank hundreds of local businesses, the ballot centers on a single question the station poses to its audience: which #BlueFriday honoree story from the year was the most compelling?

The prize structure makes the charitable stakes explicit. The confirmed 2017 page stated that the winner would get $5,000 to their charity choice thanks to the station's sponsor. That means supporters are not campaigning for a plaque or a listing; they are competing to route a sponsored donation to a cause tied to the story they back. That framing attracts a different crowd from a restaurant or dentist poll, and it is why outreach for this ballot often travels through people who were moved by a particular story rather than through business customer lists.

The mechanics are also distinctive. WKXW hosts the vote on its own website instead of a third-party ballot service, and the confirmed 2017 cycle split the decision across two stages, a site selection followed by a Twitter run-off among the top three. Everything a supporter needs to know about the current cycle lives on the station's own ballot page at nj1015.com.

The dated record: which editions are confirmed, and what WKXW leaves unpublished

Confirmed editions of this ballot ran in 2017, 2018, 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026. That year list is the entire dated history behind this award. The earliest coverage the station's own reporting ties to the feature says the #BlueFriday honors started in December 2015 during a live broadcast, which places the storytelling feature slightly ahead of the first confirmed honoree vote in 2017.

The one fully dated window is the 2017 cycle. That ballot asked readers to make a selection on the station's site, and then, from Monday, Jan. 8 through Friday, Jan. 12, to vote for one of the top three on Twitter. A two-stage design like that matters to anyone planning support, because a vote banked on the site does nothing in the run-off unless the same people return for the Twitter stage within that five-day span.

Beyond those confirmed years, WKXW does not publish a standing calendar, a category roster, a per-supporter vote cap, or any eligibility text for this award, so anyone planning a push for the newest cycle should confirm on the live ballot each cycle. The station also has not stated in a standing rule whether the $5,000 charitable payout and the sponsor arrangement carried into every later edition, and it has not printed run-off dates for cycles after the confirmed 2017 window.

How a supporter votes today on WKXW's ballot

The literal mechanics come from the confirmed 2017 cycle, and they are worth understanding because the station's design asks something unusual of supporters. First, a reader visits the honoree ballot on nj1015.com and makes a selection directly on the station's own site. WKXW runs the ballot on its own domain, with no external contest service in between; whatever the live page asks for, a supporter supplies it right there.

Second, in 2017 the station narrowed the field and moved the decision to Twitter. From Monday, Jan. 8 through Friday, Jan. 12, readers voted for one of the top three honorees there. A supporter following this design therefore needs two things: a willingness to vote on the station's site, and a way to participate in the social stage the station names. Anyone planning support should read the current ballot for this cycle's stages and dates rather than assuming the 2017 shape repeats.

Because the host is the station itself, announcements about stages, extensions and results come through WKXW's own channels rather than a platform dashboard. Nothing published states how frequently a single supporter may vote, whether an account is required, or what the station does about repeated submissions. The practical instruction for any supporter is the same: follow the ballot page and the station's announcements, and treat the published stage dates as the only schedule that counts.

How this ballot sits beside New Jersey's other public votes

New Jersey has no shortage of public votes, but nearly all of them are business and service rankings, and that is what makes this WKXW ballot stand out. The Asbury Park Press Readers' Choice, the Bergen & Morris Top Dentists, the Best of Bergen Community's Choice Awards, the Best of Jersey Shore Contest, Best of New Jersey and the Jersey Bites Monmouth County Readers' Choice all ask consumers to name favorite businesses, usually across many categories and often with nomination and voting phases run by a publishing group.

This ballot answers to a radio station instead. WKXW's audience is a listening audience, its honorees come from its own #BlueFriday storytelling, and the reward is a sponsored $5,000 donation to charity rather than a business title. Support here is built on emotional connection to a story, so the people a honoree's backers reach are moved readers and listeners, not customers comparison-shopping a category.

The hosting model differs too. None of those ranking polls are run on the station's own domain in the way this one is, which means results and stage announcements arrive through WKXW's coverage rather than a contest platform. For a supporter comparing New Jersey ballots, the choice of which vote to invest in comes down to what is being won: a business listing, or a charitable payout tied to a story the whole state can read.

Strengthening support for a BlueFriday honoree without guessing at rules

Because this ballot has run in 2017, 2018, 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026, a honoree's backers usually have one reliable asset: the story itself. The confirmed design rewards people who vote on the station's site and then return for whatever second stage WKXW names, so the strongest legitimate push is one that walks supporters through both steps and reminds them when the stage dates arrive. WKXW has published no rule text about outside help for this award, and no per-supporter limit is stated anywhere on the confirmed page. For ballots that do publish firm rules, the organizer's stated policy is the binding one, not any third party's. If a push is being weighed for the newest cycle, its window and stages are the facts to confirm on the live ballot each cycle.