The idea of converting the former channels 5 and 6 for sound broadcasting use had been first floated in Brazil in 2013, as a method to support AM stations by migrating them to FM; that year, President
Dilma Rousseff signed a law that started the AM–FM migration process in Brazil. Since then, 1,720 of the country's 1,781 AM outlets have requested migration, including in areas where no further FM stations could be added.
Jovem Pan News in
São Paulo was allowed by the
Ministry of Communications to conduct tests on 84.7 MHz in 2014. In 2017, a decree was issued that required all new radios produced in the
Free Economic Zone of Manaus beginning on 1 January 2019, to support tuning the extended band. By 2019, some makers of new automobiles, including
Ford and
Hyundai, and stereo manufacturer
Pioneer Corporation were producing radios that supported the new band. Necessary regulatory changes by the
National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) came into effect on 3 November 2020. The new frequencies will support AM–FM migration in parts of Brazil where there is insufficient room to migrate stations on the standard band alone, which is the case in 14 states. However, they will not be accessible on all radio receivers, including smartphones, if these cannot be updated or replaced. On 7 May 2021, the first ten stations began broadcasting on the extended band. Five, all on 87.1 MHz, are owned by the
public broadcaster Brazil Communication Company (EBC). Four of those five are being used to rebroadcast
Rádio Nacional's AM service, while the fifth has been designated to Rádio MEC in
Brasília, which already had Rádio Nacional AM on the FM band. The other five stations are existing AM stations. It is planned that future
highway advisory radio services use an eFM channel; only one such service exists in Brazil, . As of November 2025, over 50 eFM stations were in operation, 33 of which in the state of São Paulo, 32 migrated from AM, 14 of the state total in the
Greater São Paulo area. This is followed by Rio Grande do Sul, with six stations, all of which migrated from AM. ==See also==