Life & Work with Sarah White of Cincinnati, OH

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah White.

Hi Sarah, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up near Akron, Ohio, as an only child. I went to Lippman Day School for a few years, and then Mogadore Schools from 5th grade on. Life was pretty normal for me. I had two parents, some animals, and got to do activities I loved. I started singing at a young age, and picked up dance soon after. I always loved performing and entertaining. I picked up figure skating soon after that and continued to perform in various ice skating competitions and concerts for singing and school musicals. I finished high school thinking I would go into musical theater in college, auditioning at many good places, including the University of Cincinnati (the current city where I now live!).

Unfortunately looking back I had set the bar so high in the schools that I chose, that I didn’t get in. I had also auditioned at Kent State for the Vocal Performance program, and did get into that school and chose to go there. A few years in I also took on a dance minor. The first summer I was on break from college, I auditioned to be a part of the entertainment team at Kings Island (also here in my new city!) I ended up getting the role of one of the hosts of Nickelodeon’s Slime Time Live.

Slime Time Live is where I realized that I absolutely loved and thrived in the world of hosting. It’s such a full circle moment to now, 20+ years later being back in the same city, having moved my family here to take another hosting role, to be the lifestyle reporter for FOX19 Now. Now I’m in Cincinnati again and it’s just amazing to be able to do what I love to do full time!

Okay, back to my story…

After my summer stint with Slime Time Live, I finished school and ended up getting engaged and married to my now husband. I finished school in 2006 and took on many part time jobs. I taught private voice and beginning piano lessons, taught kids music classes and private figure skating lessons. Then at 25, someone that my husband worked with at Starbucks told him about Radio Disney, and that they had stations across the country that would hire live hosts. They mentioned that they thought I would be good for the job, and after looking into it, and remembering how much I loved hosting Slime Time live 7 years before that, I auditioned. It was a pretty rigorous audition process, I remember having to go in numerous times to host/co-host and dance. But I got the job! I hosted for the Cleveland station for three years, and then after moving to New England in 2011, I hosted for the Boston station for three years as well, until in 2014 when they shut down all the stations across the country except for the LA/national station.

While doing all of that, back in early 2011, I had also started hosting Kids Fun Days for the then Cleveland Indians. Again I was realizing more and more how much I loved hosting! After moving to North Conway, New Hampshire, in addition to working at Radio Disney Boston, I also ended up hosting a show with Outside Television called “White Mountains Today” where I started my lifestyle hosting journey. I also had my first daughter Charlotte during this time. After moving to southern NH for a couple years before heading back home to NE Ohio, I realized this was something I wanted to do for a career.

In 2015 my family and I headed back to Akron and I had my second daughter, Brooklyn. I continued to pursue hosting, going back to host at the Cleveland Indians, where I hosted in-game, and for Kids Fun days for 5 seasons. Then after those 5 seasons I even continued on with the Cleveland Guardians as their special events host. I also took a role with a marketing company called Fusion, hosting kids events similar to what I did with Radio Disney.

At that time, I found a start up called “Akron Buzz”, which was created by my now friend Dan Mosher, who ran video production companies in the area, to provide a service to the community where people could come and talk about their community events, small businesses, non-profits and more. I asked if I could come and host interviews and he said there was a spot for me if I wanted to volunteer. Eventually, after hard work from all of us, that moved into a paid weekly gig. A couple years ago, Akron Buzz grew into WAOH Television, an internet TV station for the Akron, OH area with numerous shows, including mine which was called Good Morning Akron.

In addition to hosting this show, I also interviewed people for another local internet media company, 330ToGo, and started doing news and morning show hosting at our local radio station, Rubber City Radio Akron. I’m deeply grateful for the many people, co-workers, friends, family, and more, who believed in me along the way. The support I received is what made me believe that I really could do hosting full time!

After a very challenging start to 2025, my husband and I decided along with our kids that if we were going to do a big move, and take a big leap for my career, this would be the time. I worked on putting together a good reel of my hosting material, and started to apply all over the country. I was praying that I could stay somewhat close to home, and a job offer I got in Cincinnati seemed like the perfect fit.

I now get to host live every morning with my lifestyle segments that are called “Xtra in the Nati”. In addition to that, I also am starting a show that I am really excited about called “The Bright Side”. It will be a longer form interview where I can dig into people’s lives and really see what they are passionate about. Additionally, I also want to talk with guests on the show about times when they have had to overcome obstacles and hardships. In hindsight, have they been able to see how those things have changed them for the better? Can they see “the bright side” of it all? The vision for this show comes out of my own story of probably the hardest start to a year ever, leading into this new job and opportunity for myself and for my family.

In addition to my own career being able to take off here, my husband has also been able to find a job at a wonderful local non-profit running a music program for urban youth in a juvenile detention center and at an afterschool program. These are things he is passionate about and I am thrilled for him that he gets this opportunity too. My kids are working things out, being in a new school, making new friends is hard but they are doing well. My two oldest girls already got to be in a play this school year and I couldn’t be more proud. I am so thankful for this opportunity to do what I love full time, and have the support of my family. It truly means the world to me.

“Times of transition are strenuous, but I love them. They are an opportunity to purge, rethink priorities, and be intentional about new habits. We can make our new normal any way we want.”- Kristin Armstrong

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, it has not been a smooth road. I think it’s part of life to have to go through difficult things, and then we get to use our resiliency as human beings made in the image of God. I think that it is the Obstacles and Challenges that make us who we are. They shape us and mold us and make us into the people that we are today vs our past self. The start to this year was the most challenging months of my life. Some things happened to my family that were outside of our control that changed our entire trajectory. Because of what had happened, and my desire to do a full-time lifestyle reporter role, we decided to move to Cincinnati when I got this job back at the end of July. And I am thrilled to be in this position, but moving your family 3.5 hours away from “home” comes with obstacles and challenges too. Some of those, we are still navigating through. But something I have noticed about myself as I am coming out of this season of struggle is how I have changed. I am a different person than when I went into it. I am not as idealistic, but still hopeful. Optimistic about the future, but embracing the hard, the everyday realities of life.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am the current lifestyle reporter for FOX19’s Xtra in the Nati. I go out into the community each morning and do two live segments with local people &/or businesses. I love to be able to promote all of these various things going on in the Tri-State area. We get to be a part of the morning show each day and share all of these things with our viewers. I am proud that these segments which are new, and just started in August, are doing well and are well liked. I love to be able to connect with both the person I am interviewing, and with the audience and give them a new trusted place to go, or person to see. I also just began my own show, The Bright Side, which will run on the Fox19 streaming channel, app and website at fox19.com/brightside, where I hope to connect with people in a longer format interview to be able to dig into what they are passionate about, and how overcoming difficulties in their own lives has helped them to see “the bright side” of why they went through what they did.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson I have learned along my journey is that I am only in control of myself and my own actions. There are so many times that I wish that a person in my life would have done something differently, especially when it is something that directly affects me and my family. But I remember that all I can really control is my own actions, and how I react and respond to others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://fox19.com/brightside
• Instagram: @cincinnati_sarah
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61579385079322 Cincinnati Sarah
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-white-2646294/