Like aging rock stars, TOTT persists and thrives

WKAR joins City Pulse in delivering the classics

We live in an era when rock stars like Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Stevie Nicks, Billy Joel and Elton John, who launched their careers in the 1960s and ‘70s, are still performing into their 8th and 9th decades. (Including cover subjects Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.)

In “My Generation,” Roger Daltrey of The Who famously sang, “I hope I die before I get old.” Bet he never thought he’d still be singing that and other ancient hits at 81 years old!

Similarly, City Pulse, celebrating its 18th annual Top of the Town contest, is excited and grateful to have WKAR as our new partner. Like aging rock stars, we’re thrilled to present you with both the classics and new categories to vote in. While it’s debatable whether 18 “contest years” can be compared to 75 or 80 human years, locals have long relied on Top of the Town for a chance to vote for Greater Lansing’s best of the best. We’re proud to continue that tradition with WKAR.

We’ve also introduced a new category in the Local Arts group to highlight our theme: Best Rock Star Over 75.

Voting went live at 5:30 a.m. today (Oct. 1) and will continue through 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 14.

Back in 2023, we had more than 330 categories, by far the most ever. For 2025, we’ve set the number at 250, making it easier for you to vote in each one!

Remember, the people-related categories that we used to have in our Top of the Town contest now make up our Top of the Town People Contest. Look for an announcement on that contest date early in 2026.

Meanwhile, several other new categories are making their debut this year, voted on by you in previous contests via the Best Category We Didn’t Think Of: Best Blues Artist/Band, Best Business IT Support Service, Best Computer Repair Business, Best Dog Training Business, Best Game Shop, Best LGBTQIA+ Friendly Hangout, Best Moving Service, Best Security Service, Best Senior Care Facility and Best Storage Unit Facility.

To get started, visit lansingcitypulse.com, then click on the Top of the Town banners at the top of the page to get to the contest site. There, you will find links to register and vote. To begin voting, select any category and follow the prompts in the pop-up window. All votes are submitted automatically. Don’t worry about a second submission screen.

If you need to stop and come back to your ballot, or your internet browser closed, you can return to the site and continue voting where you left off. Remember that you can always log out of your voting session and, when you are ready to resume voting, log back in.

As always, you can vote in as many (or as few) categories as you wish, but please remember to finish your ballot before 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 14. That gives you plenty of time for your toughest decisions! The Top 5 in each category will advance to the second round, which will be announced Nov. 5. You will then have two more weeks to vote for the Top 3, which will be announced in our Dec. 3 issue.

If you are the first to nominate a business, please be patient. It will undergo an approval process so we can verify it is in the right category, spelled correctly, etc. If you do not see it after 24 hours, please contact Steve Underwood at (517) 999-6704 or steve@lansingcitypulse.com between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.

When you vote or nominate, you have an opportunity to comment. Please do so! We may want to use those comments in the next round, when the Top 5 nominees are winnowed down to the Top 3.

If need be, you can also send your list of votes via snail mail to Steve Underwood at City Pulse, 1905 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing, MI 48912.

And make sure you sign up for the City Pulse newsletters! If you’re not sure whether you’re one of the approximately 17,000 who have signed up already, enter your email address on the contest website, and we will sort it out for you and make sure you only get it once.

We are excited to again partner with RevFluent and Friends2Follow, showcasing all the categories, nominees and, ultimately, our Top 5 next month and Top 3 in December.

The integrity of the contest is of vital, so all nominations will come from the community. Yes, winners past and present often place ads, which sometimes results in more votes because of greater exposure. But it does not influence the results, and buying an ad is not required to participate or win. Top of the Town is absolutely a people’s choice contest.

Top of the Town is THE platform in Greater Lansing to vote for the best of the best, and when our Winners’ Issue is published Dec. 3, you’ll have a great community resource all year long! Thanks so much to Dennis Preston for his outstanding artwork on the cover and within this story!