Programming
La Octava leaned on GRC's existing news and talk infrastructure for some of its most important programming. Julio Hernández López, known as Julio Astillero, who hosted an afternoon show for Radio Centro, hosted the station's flagship 10 p.m. newscast. However, Carmen Aristegui, whose morning newscast has been aired by GRC since late 2018, would initially not be seen on La Octava, as she has a preexisting relationship with CNN.[14] At the same time, the news programming that had been airing on 97.7 since its January 14, 2019, relaunch, would move to 88.1, matching the 8.1 assignment of XHFAMX. Vicente Serrano, Álvaro Delgado Gómez and Alejandro Páez Varela were also announced as hosts for the channel's news programming.
The Africam Safari, located in Puebla, was slated to produce several children's and wildlife shows to air on La Octava.,[15] however, they never made it to air.
Citing financial reasons, Astillero's 10pm newscast ended on December 20, 2019, while a month later, Vicente Serrano resigned on-air due him alleging that GRC was trying to dictate the content of his program, which he refused. Astillero left the channel (and GRC) on March 20, 2020. The few non-news programming produced by GRC for La Octava were "La Z TV", a grupera magazine show hosted by the DJs of the radio station of the same name and "La Octava de Parranda", a Saturday late-night show hosted by Jorge Muñiz. Most of the channel's remaining on-air schedule consisted of Spanish-dubbed documentaries and specials from Deutsche Welle and infomercials.
As La Octava failed to catch on with the audience except for their newscasts, of which only Carmen Aristegui remained on the channel by mid-2021, it soon became a liability for the already financially-strained GRC. It did not help matters that the channel's newscasts were noted to have a strong bias towards the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and against his opposition, and that because of the company's crisis, their news presence on radio had been reduced to 6 hours on weekdays. In March 2022, Jacinto Marina became GRC's new general manager, replacing Juan Aguirre Abdó, with one of his first decisions be to cancel La Octava's newscasts for TV, with them remaining only on radio and on digital platforms. This change took effect in April 1, with La Octava's schedule now only consisting of the aforementioned DW programs as well as independent Mexican films.
In May 2022, GRC announced it had sold XHFAMX to Grupo Andrade, owners of El Heraldo de México and their associated TV and radio networks. La Octava ceased broadcasting on June 12, with Heraldo TV taking its place the next day. However, under a deal between both companies, GRC continues to operate the 8.2 subchannel, which it launched on August 1 as "Free TV", a general entertainment channel with programming supplied by Olympusat. On January 28, 2023, Heraldo launched the 8.3 subchannel, "Unife TV", operated by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.
