Questions about Oregon (Portland, Eugene, Salem: sales, income, quality of life)

[sophialove]

Hello world! We are new to this post, first time so please bear with us.
We live in California and we are looking at moving to Oregon. Important criteria is mild climate as much sun as possible, not humid, safe, quiet, small town but not isolated or completely rural, lower cost of living with good quality of life. Decent medical care within reasonable distance. My wife is disabled so we lost the biggest chunk of our income and need to downsize. I work in television or radio advertising/promotions and need to work wherever we live, unfortunately we don't have a retirement but I can do other jobs as long as the pay is at least 60K/year. We need help! Unfortunately, we are not in the position to just come up there and scout around. Thanks so much.

[little peg]

look at the other messages here, that should help you narrow your questions,

[Bendite]

Originally Posted by sophialove

Hello world! We are new to this post, first time so please bear with us.
We live in California and we are looking at moving to Oregon. Important criteria is mild climate as much sun as possible, not humid, safe, quiet, small town but not isolated or completely rural, lower cost of living with good quality of life. Decent medical care within reasonable distance. My wife is disabled so we lost the biggest chunk of our income and need to downsize. I work in television or radio advertising/promotions and need to work wherever we live, unfortunately we don't have a retirement but I can do other jobs as long as the pay is at least 60K/year. We need help! Unfortunately, we are not in the position to just come up there and scout around. Thanks so much.

As much sun as possible could put you in Central Oregon - maybe Bend, Redmond or Prineville. However, we have four seasons here and I'm not sure if that fits what you mean by mild climate because it does get cold and we do get snow and some of our summer days get pretty warm. In Central Oregon, there are a couple of TV stations in Bend and several radio stations, but Bend housing is expensive (not nearly as expensive as California though). In Central Oregon altogether, I think there are 16 radio stations, a couple in Prineville, one or two in Redmond and most in Bend. There is also Bend Broadband, our cable company, and they often are hiring for marketing and sales positions but I really don't know what you might expect in salary.

[mdvaden]

Either you compromise, or your choices are going to get clear in a hurry.

For example, you probably won't find your work in a town smaller than Medford.

If the rain is too wet, and too little sun in Portland, then the weather you mentioned rules-out Portland, all of it's suburbs, as well as Eugene and Salem.

Now you are left with basically Bend and Medford.

[esya]

I'd look at the city-data and the federal wage data for a few other areas. The Rocky Mtn region is sunnier and dryer, and has some mid size cities that are more likely to provide what you are looking for, rather than western Oregon especially.

[Silverfall]

You are going to have to compromise. For radio and TV promotion jobs, I would think you will need to be closer to a metro area. You might want to live in one of the smaller towns surrouding a metro area.

I live in Salem, OR and the weather is definately 4 seasons. I'd say winter tends to hover in the low 40's most of the time, and it is gray from about Nov-Feb with occasional sunny breaks in-between. Summers tend to be around 80. The valley area tends to be less rainy than Portland, but if you want a lot of good sun you need to head to central Oregon area. Not sure how many radio and tv jobs are out there.

In the Salem Metro area, I would recommend Silverton, Monmouth, Indpendence, and maybe Stayon or Aumsville. Salem has a hospital as does Silverton. These are all nice small towns. Silverton is very charming and one of my favorite small towns around Salem.

Oerogn in general is not humid. I originally hailed from Illinois and it is NOT humid out here.

[TheGhostofTomMcCall]

Looking at your salary requirements, I'd have to say it limits you the PDX metro area unless you can drive a truck or something. Radio in PDX is dominated by CC, CBS and Entercom -- you'll have to get in one of these outfits to do radio. 60K? I don't know. Good luck.

[Imperial1904]

Originally Posted by sophialove

Hello world! We are new to this post, first time so please bear with us.
We live in California and we are looking at moving to Oregon. Important criteria is mild climate as much sun as possible, not humid, safe, quiet, small town but not isolated or completely rural, lower cost of living with good quality of life. Decent medical care within reasonable distance. My wife is disabled so we lost the biggest chunk of our income and need to downsize. I work in television or radio advertising/promotions and need to work wherever we live, unfortunately we don't have a retirement but I can do other jobs as long as the pay is at least 60K/year. We need help! Unfortunately, we are not in the position to just come up there and scout around. Thanks so much.

Oregon might not be what you're looking for. The only large metro that could have decent enough medical care is Portland. The rest of the state is made up of small towns and are rural. If Oregon is where you want to move, I'd say stay along the 5 as it goes through the most populated areas of Oregon.

[DavePautsch]

Just a note. The radio station in Lebanon (KGAL/KSHO) where I have my weekly radio show - it's actually 2 AM stations, 1 news / sports Talk (where my show is), the other is music (Sinatra, Dean Martin type stuff) is now hiring sales people.
The Sales Manager just recently left for another position and my understanding was that there was the potential there for her for somewhere upwards of 50K; it all depends on how good you are at building the relationships that result in sales.

They are interviewing now for new sales people...and the manager job is going to be in the mix. You might want to check it out. E-mail me and I'd be happy to give you the contact information.

Dave

[^Numi^]

If you want to get hired as a cowhand...try Paisley Oregon. :|
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