To be perfectly clear, this has nothing to do with the recent Opie and Anthony dust-up. That being said, it suddenly seemed relevant to the future of satellite radio, so we thought we’d post the news. Again, they already canceled. It’s not over Opie and Anthony. Ok, on to the news.

On May 1st, Zipcar a car sharing/rental service that provides over 2,500 cars to 90,000 members, sent out an email to those members informing them that ZipCar was parting ways with XM radio. The email begins:

Sometimes if you love something, you just have to set it free. So, even though we know that so many of you love XM’s tuneage and ad-free format, we’ve made the difficult decision to break ties with XM while things get sorted out in the satellite radio industry (there’s serious talk of XM and Sirius merging). But rest assured, we’re checking out new ways to make your Ziptrips just as rockin’ (or jazzin’, or, well, you get the picture) as always.

The partnership first formed in 2005, and was newsworthy enough to deserve a Reuters piece and was covered by our sister-blog Jalopnik.
Although the email clearly states that Zipcar is unwilling to continue the relationship due to the merger-o-rama, Zipcar told the Boston Herald that it was simply the end of their contract. Huh?

It’s not fun to be XM radio these days, between the loss of a high profile 2,500 subscription account, and all this excellent publicity, the stockholder’s meeting should be fun. Read Zipcar’s XM radio breakup email inside.

Zipcar writes:

Sometimes if you love something, you just have to set it free. So, even though we know that so many of you love XM’s tuneage and ad-free format, we’ve made the difficult decision to break ties with XM while things get sorted out in the satellite radio industry (there’s serious talk of XM and Sirius merging). But rest assured, we’re checking out new ways to make your Ziptrips just as rockin’ (or jazzin’, or, well, you get the picture) as always.

As we say goodbye to our partner, we’ll be removing the XM radios from all our Zipcars. This process will take a couple of months, and XM will continue to work in our cars in the meantime. If your car has it… turn it on and enjoy. To see if your Zipcar still has XM, check the vehicle details on our website when you make a reservation.

We don’t want to leave you hanging without the music that you’ve come to know and love. You can still groove and sing out loud after the XM radios are gone from our Zipcars. Need it? Must have it? Love it too much? XM is giving Zipsters access to some solid deals through a unique set of friends and family discounts. If interested, find the deal that works for you and follow the simple instructions. Just go to http://partners.xmradio.com and enter access code XMZIPXM05 to check ’em out.

PS. The XM radios that come out of our Zipcars can’t be reused but will be recycled in an earth friendly manner.

Thanks for your understanding… happy Zipping.

Peter Demers Director, Member Services

Zipcar will drop XM radio from its autos [Boston Herald]
XM Inks Deal with Zipcar [Jalopnik]
(Photo: miss_rogue)

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