NoCo's Cutest Dog: How Voting Works & How to Win

A confirmed September window, and a lot that isn't confirmed

This dog-photo contest runs at 999thepoint.com, KKPL's contest site, and the one thing that's actually pinned down first is the month. An earlier version of the 2019 edition, published September 10 of that year, states the field had already been narrowed from more than 400 submitted dog photos down to 40 finalists before the public vote opened. Archived pages show the same page live in September across 2019, 2020, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026, so the contest is annual and September-timed. It just doesn't publish exact open and close dates anywhere checked for this guide.

The station's own page names its home turf directly. The related-stories rail and footer tie 99.9 The Point to Colorado throughout, in its navigation, its related links, and its own copy. "NoCo" is Northern Colorado, and the page's own text backs that up directly.

Beyond the September window and the Colorado tie confirmed above, 999thepoint.com's own live page is the authority for anything not settled here. Confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

What 'NoCo' actually confirms, once the site's own text is read closely

"NoCo" reads like shorthand until you check what the station's own page links to: the related content sitting under the 2019 write-up keeps pointing at the same corner of the state, all under the station's own banner. That's a station identity, not a loose brand name; 99.9 The Point covers Northern Colorado specifically, and this contest inherited that geography directly.

What the 2019 version of the page confirms about the contest mechanics themselves: dog owners submit a photo, the organizer narrows the field (400-plus entries down to 40 in the year checked), and the public votes on the finalists. That's a nomination-then-vote shape familiar from readers'-choice ballots elsewhere in this network, just built around a photo instead of a business listing.

Why the missing categories matter here specifically

A "cutest dog" contest sounds like it needs no category list. But even a single-category photo poll usually publishes a cap, one vote per device, one per day, somewhere on the ballot page, and nothing checked for this guide holds that text. A supporter mobilizing friends and family should check the live page for that cap before promising anyone an unlimited vote count the platform might not actually allow.

A radio-station contest, not a syndicated ballot network

Unlike the CommunityVotes or BroadwayWorld programs that run an identical format across dozens of markets, this contest lives on one station's own site. That's a smaller operation, and it shows in what's published: no promotional partner listings, no press mentions beyond the original write-up, and a single confirmed URL rather than a network of subdomains.

That size cuts both ways for a dog owner weighing whether to enter. A single-station contest usually means a smaller, more local voting pool, so real, repeated engagement from friends and neighbors can matter more here than on a statewide ballot drawing thousands of entries. It also means less institutional memory. If this year's rules differ from 2019's, there's no larger platform FAQ to check against, only the current live page.

One more honest gap worth naming: archived pages exist for 2019, 2020, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026, with none on file for 2021 or 2022. That doesn't necessarily mean the contest paused those two years; it just means no archived copy of the page survives from that stretch anywhere checked for this guide. Either way, archived pages show the site live again from 2023 onward, through 2026.

Building support without guessing at a rulebook that isn't published

The safest plan here is boring: enter with a real, clear photo, and ask real people, friends, family, neighbors, whoever actually knows the dog, to go vote once the ballot opens. Repeat the ask across whatever the actual open window turns out to be this year, since only the month is confirmed. Don't promise supporters an unlimited number of votes or a specific per-day cap; that detail isn't published anywhere on the site, and the honest answer is to check 999thepoint.com before anyone assumes a workaround exists.

Two Northern Colorado ballots worth knowing about while you're at it: Best of NOCO runs a multi-category business readers'-choice program across the same Northern Colorado region, and CommunityVotes Fort Collins covers its own city specifically through a different organizer. Neither shares an organizer with KKPL's dog contest, and nominating in one doesn't carry over to the other. Before spending a dollar promoting any dog photo, though, read is buying votes legal; a photo contest with no published rulebook is exactly the kind of gap where a supporter can accidentally cross a line the organizer never wrote down. Getting more votes online lays out safer groundwork, asking real people directly, that works whether or not KKPL ever publishes a cap.