Using Findstr On SQL 2005 ERRORLOG File

We have set up a couple of SQL Server 2005 systems and I have found
that the format of the ERRORLOG files and the SQL Agent's log files
are Unicode or some format that findstr cannot parse properly. "find"
parses them fine, but it doesn't have the capabilities that I need --
specifically, I can't search for multiple strings in one search.

I see the checkbox on the SQL Agent's for "Write OEM File", but it is
grayed out so I am not able to try checking that. I also don't know
if that would affect the server's ERRORLOG file too or just the
Agent's log file.

So what am I missing? What is everyone else doing who is used to
having scripts to parse these files looking for strings that indicate
problems? Is there a server setting that will force it to go back to
a plain ANSI text file format for log files? Is that a bad thing to
do?

Thanks in advance for any insight,
Teresa Masino